MOSCOW, March 13. /TASS/. There are no prerequisites for a new round of EU sanctions against Moscow, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in a televised interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel on Wednesday.
According to Chizhov, the European Parliament’s resolution on the state of political relations with Moscow is significantly biased against Russia, but it is not binding for the EU executive bodies — the European Commission and the European External Action Service (EEAS).
"As for the possible further sanctions, [the European Parliament’s resolution] does not include demands, but an appeal to the European Union to stay ready for new sanctions," he said. "However, in my estimates, I can say with all responsibility that at present I cannot witness such readiness at the EU executive bodies."
The Russian diplomat is convinced that the resolution has "a full set of those complaints which the European lawmakers biased against Russia, have accumulated in recent years."
"It is a rather extensive resolution which is actually similar to the European Parliament’s other resolutions through one positive feature: it is not mandatory," he said.
Chizhov recalled that despite Washington’s regular "political go-aheads" with the aim to exert influence on Brussels’ policy towards Russia, the European Union does not always follow all the directives. The Russian envoy referred to the Nord Stream 2 project, which is being implemented "regardless of all sorts of calls and threats coming from Washington."
On March 12, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the report titled "State of EU-Russia Political Relations." The resolution says that the Nord Stream 2 "needs to be stopped," while Russia is not recognized as a strategic partner of the European Union. As a European diplomatic source said earlier, due to its non-binding manner, the resolution would not affect the practical implementation of that project along with the measures taken by the European Union to regulate it.