As head of the OSCE, Austria will seek to ease the sanctions against Russia
Austria intends to take advantage of the chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in order to ease the European Union’s sanctions against Russia. "We must restore trust in Europe, and transform the sanctions from a system of punishment to a system of incentives," the Foreign Minister of Austria, Sebastian Kurz, said in an interview with Der Spiegel, excerpts of which were published on the website of the edition on Friday, December 30th.
Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, there was a return to the bloc mentality of the Cold War, the Minister said. He stressed that concerning the EU’s relations with Russia the established trend should change and the EU should "respond with a gradual easing of sanctions to every positive development on the ground."
Until now, the EU has agreed that the sanctions against Russia may be canceled only after Moscow fully implements the Minsk agreement on the settlement of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. The German Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in the summer, caused strong discontent in the Federal Chancellery when he spoke of an initiative similar to the Austrian one.
"If we can achieve significant progress, then, in my view, nothing should prevent the gradual lifting of sanctions," he said at the time. Austria will take on the rotating OSCE chairmanship on January 1st.