BERLIN: Tough new economic sanctions against Russia will hurt Germany’s economy but they are necessary for the sake of peace in Europe, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said in a television interview yesterday.
The European Union imposed sanctions that took effect on Friday targeting Russia’s banking, defence and energy sectors because of Moscow’s support for pro-Russian separatist rebels battling Kiev’s forces in eastern Ukraine. “We can’t behave as if we’re just a community of economic interests, because we’re a political union and have to do what we can to ensure peace on this continent,” said Gabriel, who is also economy minister and head of the Social Democrats (SPD).
Germany, the EU’s largest economy, has extensive trade ties with Russia but Chancellor Angela Merkel became a firm advocate of the tougher measures against Moscow after the downing of an airliner last month over an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by the rebels. All 298 people on board the plane were killed.
“What would happen if the European Union didn’t react?” Gabriel said in the ZDF TV interview, the 100th anniversary of Germany’s declaring war on France in 1914.
“If all the lessons learned in Europe are that someone can start a civil war in a neighbouring country and nothing happens, then that would cost a lot more than a few percentage points of possible growth,” he said.
Reuters
