Progress On Lifting Anti-Russia Sanctions Can Be Reached In 2020 - German Lawmaker

Progress on Lifting Anti-Russia Sanctions Can be Reached in 2020 - German Lawmaker

Progress on lifting the European Union's sanctions against Russian can be reached in 2020 if there is a positive outcome from the upcoming Normandy format talks, Ralf Stegner, a co-chair of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and its leader in Schleswig-Holstein, told Sputnik on Thursday

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th October, 2019) Progress on lifting the European Union's sanctions against Russian can be reached in 2020 if there is a positive outcome from the upcoming Normandy format talks, Ralf Stegner, a co-chair of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and its leader in Schleswig-Holstein, told Sputnik on Thursday.

"I hope that [in 2020] there will be progress [on the issue of lifting anti-Russian sanctions]. I don't know how fast it will be. If everything depended only on Germany, the question would be solved faster. But we're not the only ones playing a role here," Stegner said.

According to the politician, lifting sanctions against Russia is in the interests of Europe

"I think, and we have just discussed this, that the more progress we can make on the Minsk agreements, on the Normandy format and the Steinmeier formula between the new regions of Ukraine and Russia, the sooner there will be no sanctions. They do no one any good," he said.

Stegner also touched upon the issue of minorities and separatist movements in Europe, saying that Berlin could play a part in ameliorating the situation.

"I think today's talks were interesting because they also dealt with minority issues. We need to focus more on these issues. In Ukraine [there is the issue of] Russian minorities, but in Europe there are these [similar] problems in Catalonia, in Scotland, Ireland, and other countries, and we can also observe them. And I think Germany could help here as well," Stegner said.

Relations between Russia and EU countries have been strained due to the Ukrainian crisis and the reunification of Crimea with Russia. The European Union, together with the United States, introduced sanctions against Russia, to which Russia responded with its counter-sanctions. Some EU countries have recently begun questioning the effectiveness of sanctions and started looking for different solutions to problems between Russia and the European Union.