IRELAND SOUTH MEP Mick Wallace has said he and colleague Clare Daly “did what we thought was right” in opposing a European Parliament motion on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The two Irish MEPs were among just 13 who opposed the motion which was supported by 637 MEPs, with 26 abstentions.
The motion was titled ‘Russian aggression against Ukraine’ and contained 48 different texts which were voted on.
Speaking this morning to the Morning Mix with Alan Corcoran on South East Radio, Wallace said that he supported some of the texts but could not agree with others.
“This resolution wasn’t just ‘do you condemn Russian aggression?’, there’s an absolute multitude of stuff in the resolution. Some of it we agree with and some of it we disagree with,” he said.
Wallace, who three weeks ago described western warnings of a Russian invasion as “unsubstantiated fear mongering”, today said he opposed the subsequent invasion.
He said he supports the said that the first text of yesterday’s motion which “condemns in the strongest possible terms the Russian Federation’s illegal, unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against and invasion of Ukraine”.
He said that he supports this text and the following one which called for a Russian withdrawal but cannot support other texts which “welcomes the unity between the EU, NATO and other like minded democratic partners”.
“One of the things that we voted against was it reiterates that NATO is the foundation of collective defence for the member states, who are NATO allies, and welcomes the unity between the EU and NATO. We’re anti-war, NATO has nothing to do with peace, it’s to do with war, we’re pro-peace, we’re anti war,” he said.
In the radio interview, Wallace also referred to other texts in the motion which call for EU member states to send “defensive weapons to Ukraine” and which also recognise NATO deployments to “strengthen the eastern flank and deter any further Russian aggression”.
“The way forward is not putting in more arms and guns in there, the way forward is negotiation. The Ukrainians and the Russians, the French and the Germans, the Chinese and the Americans need to sit down and bring about a ceasefire,” Wallace told the programme.
Wallace said that the EU wanted to “flood Ukraine with arms” and he described this as “madness”.
When it was put to him that Ukrainians in the country have been seeking weapons and ammunition, Wallace said: “The more arms that are going to go in there the more Ukrainians that die.”
Asked about Corcoran how it was possible to negotiate with “a despot like Putin”, Wallace replied:
How did the Brits negotiate with the IRA in the north, if you don’t negotiate, you have to talk to your enemy no matter how bad they are.
He added: ”Russia invaded the place, they have to carry responsibility for that, Putin’s completely wrong to invade the place.”
Speaking remotely to the European Parliament yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed for Ukraine to be admitted into the EU.
Asked would he favour Ukrainian membership, Wallace said:
If Ukraine were actually welcomed into the EU, without conditions of neoliberal reforms and opening the place up to be raped by Western corporate interest, then I’d be in agreement of it. But when they’re doing that I wouldn’t. Listen, there’s 20 countries in the Balkans waiting.
“We said that we will oppose the militarisation of Europe, lock, stock and barrel and that we’d work for peace and we would challenge all war, and we’re still doing that as well as we can,” he said.
The fact that we’re getting attacked in the media at home, I take it as a compliment because if we were doing nothing, and there’s plenty people out here doing nothing, they wouldn’t say a word about you.
“We done what we thought was the right thing and I’ll tell you what, it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy but we couldn’t in all honesty vote for it given that there’s so much stuff in it that’s wrong, enhancing our our relationship with NATO.”
He added: “Only 13 of us out of over 700 MEPs voted against this yesterday, and I’ll tell you what it takes courage from 13 to stand up against those numbers.”
Each of Ireland’s other MEP’s including Ciarán McManus of Sinn Féin and Ciarán Cuffe and Grace O’Sullivan of the Green Party voted in favour of the motion.
In a motion in December opposing Russia’s military build up, McManus had opposed it and the Greens had abstained as the motion made reference to increased military support for Ukraine.
In a statement yesterday, Cuffe said that while he was also opposed to similar references in yesterday’s motion, the situation had changed following Russia’s invasion.
“Although there was language in the resolution that we disagreed with including the strengthening of NATO’s enhanced forward presence in the EU, calls for common military exercises and expanding liquefied natural gas terminals, I believe that the Russian attack must be strongly condemned,” he said.
MacManus said in a statement that the European Parliament needed to be united on the issue: “The European Parliament, as the representative voice of the European people, needs to speak with one united voice in our opposition to the war in Ukraine. Any division would embolden Vladimir Putin to assume that his aggression is palatable. It is not – Putin’s actions are unacceptable.”
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