For the past two days, a delegation of S&D MEPs met with Russian parliamentarians from the State Duma and the Federation Council in the framework of the second round of the ‘Belgrade Consultations’, and discussed their viewpoints related to climate change and combating terrorism. Participants presented and discussed their respective views on controlling and limiting the effects of climate change, as well as features related to the diverse approaches of combating terrorism, in order to respond better to the transnational and global challenges we all are facing.

 

The parliamentarians intend to meet again in the second half of 2018 in order to address other topics of common interest. These discussions highlight the necessity to maintain the parliamentary dialogue between MEPs and their Russian counterparts.

 

 

“We are making constant efforts to keep the dialogue open. The events of the last years damaged seriously the confidence between the two sides, leading to a worrying situation. That is an additional reason to maintain the channels of communication open. Our clear red lines do not mean we should not make sustained efforts to re-launch and keep open the parliamentary dialogue. As we said on previous occasions - it is not necessary to agree with each other, but it is important to mutually understand each other’s perspectives.

 

Any progress from the stalemate we are in goes only through the exercise of talking to each other. We hope conditions will allow for the EU-Russia Parliamentary Co-operation Committee to re-start its work as soon as possible.”