Laima Liucija Andrikienė (PPE ). – Mr President, we are all well aware of the context of the draft resolution we are debating today. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Canada and the USA have their Magnitsky laws in action, enabling their governments to impose targeted sanctions on perpetrators and beneficiaries of serious human rights violations. We, the European Parliament, have repeatedly called for the establishment of an EU-wide equivalent. I am convinced that this has to be done at EU level, and without further postponement or delay.
I call on High Representative Mogherini and I urge the Commission and the European External Action Service to bring forward a legislative proposal for an EU Magnitsky Act before – and I stress before – the end of the current parliamentary term. I firmly believe we have had enough of differing interpretation and differing implementation of the EU sanctions, and we should stop this practice.