In a joint letter sent to Donald Tusk today, Manfred Weber MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group, Guy Verhofstadt MEP, Chairman of the ALDE Group, and Rebecca Harms MEP, Co-Chairwoman of the Greens/EFA Group, called on the President of the European Council to initiate a decision on the activation of tougher sanctions against Russia at the European Summit of 20-21 October. The aim of these enforcement tools should be to put pressure on Moscow to respect the UN Security Council resolutions and international law.

"Given the urgency of the situation in Syria and Russia’s role in backing the military offensive of the Assad regime, we would like to urge you to initiate in this context a decision by the European Council on a set of enforcement tools to be activated should Russia continue violating UN Security Council resolutions and bombing civilians in Syria.

Earlier this week, the Foreign Affairs Council adopted personally targeted sanctions against certain Syrian officials. We are of the view that measures motivating Russia and the Russian leadership to abide by international law should follow”.