Lords ask: are EU sanctions on Russia having the wrong effect?
On Thursday 16 October the House of Lords EU external affairs committee will hear from Andrii Kuzmenko, the Ukrainian Acting Ambassador in the UK, and also Sergei Guriev, Professor of Economics at Sciences Po in Paris.
The House of Lords EU Sub-Committee on External Affairs will quiz them on next steps in stabilising Ukraine, whether EU assistance is reaching Ukraine and proving effective, the economic and political impact of sanctions on Russia and the role of the UK in enforcing anti-corruption and anti-money laundering measures. The evidence session is part of a Lords inquiry into the relationship between the EU and Russia, which is expected to report in early 2015.
At 9.05am the Committee will hear from Mr Andrii Kuzmenko, Ukrainian Acting Ambassador in the UK, and later from influential Russian economist and former Russian Government adviser Sergei Guriev, now Professor of Economics at Sciences Po in Paris.
Questions the Committee may ask include:
- How can the situation in Ukraine be stabilised?
- How effective is EU economic assistance to Ukraine? Should the EU have done anything differently?
- What has been the economic and political impact of sanctions on Russia
- To what extent have Russian trade measures against Ukraine put the peace process at risk or resulted in a delay in Ukraine's implementation of the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement?
- What is the role for the EU in mediating between Russia and the Ukraine? On what basis should Russia and Ukraine engage?
- Is there any possibility of a constructive agenda in the 2010 Russian suggestion for a free trade area stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok?
The evidence session will start at 9.05am on Thursday 16 October in Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords.
The session will be webcast at www.parliamentlive.tv and is also open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance and should allow time for security screening.
