Ada Colau joins the call of European mayors asking the EU to stop financing the war in Ukraine

28/04/2022 - 12:47 h

Jorge Luis Fuentealba Diez

With the participation of the mayors of cities such as Barcelona, ​​Warsaw, Florence, Brussels, Budapest, Prague, Stockholm and Gdansk, the video calls for immediate action from the European Commission.

On the occasion of the plenary session of the Committee of the Regions of the European Union held on April 28, the European cities have wanted to reinforce with a short video of twelve mayors the joint message that they made public on March 15 through the “Urgent call from Mariupol”, a strong declaration with Russia and also in the demands to the EU adopted after a telematic meeting of the deputy mayor Mariúpol Sergiy Olov with several cities, including Barcelona represented by deputy mayor Laia Bonet as head of international relations of the city council.

With the participation of the mayors of cities such as Barcelona, ​​​​Warsaw, Florence, Brussels, Budapest, Prague, Stockholm and Gdansk and disseminated with the hashtags #StopFinancingTheWar, #EUmustDoMore and #CitiesWithUkraine, the video calls for immediate action from the European Commission and emphasizes the stoppage of European trade relations with Russia at the energy sphere, since these items finance the war.

“We, European men and women, pay a billion dollars a day to finance Putin’s army through the purchase of Russian oil, gas and coal”, says Rafal Trzaskowski, Mayor of Warsaw; “All military actions against civilians must stop immediately. We believe that it is the duty of Europe and its global allies to make it effective”, adds Mayor Ada Colau. The Mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, declares: “But it is not enough to welcome the refugees. We call on the European Commission to cut off all trade relations with Russia until its army withdraws from Ukraine”, while Zdenek Hrib, Mayor of Prague, says: “The sudden impact of ending our addiction to oil, gas and coal is a necessary sacrifice compared to the sacrifice of innocent Ukrainian men and women.”

Driven by the city of Gdansk, the “Urgent Call from Mariupol” has been signed by more than 300 political representatives, including mayors and deputy mayors of German, French, British, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hungarian and from other countries, including capitals such as London, Rome, Athens or Lisbon. On behalf of Barcelona, ​​​​the declaration has been signed by Mayor Ada Colau, deputy mayor Laia Bonet and councilor Ernest Maragall as vice president of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.