The growing harassment and crackdowns against civil society organisations and NGOs by the Russian authorities raise real concerns about the health of Russian democracy. The EU cannot stand idly by in the face of this harassment of NGOs. One concrete response would be an immediate freeze of a planned visa liberalisation scheme between the EU and Russia for officials involved in this civil society crackdown or those suspected of complicity in the murder of Sergei Magnitsky.

It is incomprehensible that the majority of EU governments has given in to pressure from Moscow on visa liberalisation for Russian officials against the background of the unresolved Mangitsky case. EU member states should have instead followed the US's lead and, at the very minimum, imposed sanctions on those connected with the murder of Sergei Magnitsky, including visa restrictions.

After today's presentation of the progress reports on Neighbourhood policy, Greens/EFA foreign affairs spokesperson Werner Schulz commented on the state of play of the Eastern Partnership (for Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia):