European Union High Representative Joseph Borrel said that the EU will not continue the escalation with the expulsion of diplomats connected to the situation in the Czech Republic, as further escalation is not on the European agenda for the time being.
Borell said this after the meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers, the press-service of the EU Foreign Affairs Council reports.
EU High Representative assured the Czech Republic of strong support of the European Union, but at the same time noticed that “we need to look for a strong support but at the same time to try not to increase the tensions”.
“Turning to the current issues that kept us busy today, we once again expressed our solidarity with the Czech Republic and Bulgaria in light of the recent events related to Russia. I have to repeat again that the pattern of negative actions by the Russian Government continues and it feeds the dynamic of escalation. Today’s exchange will feed into the European Council discussion on European Union-Russia relations on the next 25th May,” Borell said.
He added that the European Council will discuss about Russia on 25 May, and maybe after this discussion the High Representative and the Commission could be charged with presenting an analysis of the situation of the relationship with Russia, but for the tome being “it is not in the agenda to continue the escalation of the expulsions of diplomats”.
It's worth noting that the Czech Prime Minister called on the EU countries to expell at least one Russian diplomat each because the attack against the Czech Republic is an attack against the European Union as well.