EU Ignores Europeans Who Want Union to Pursue Own Policies,Not Guided by US

MOSCOW, December 20 (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova, Svetlana Alexandrova – EU citizens want Europe to be more independent and act in accordance with the expectations of its own people, experts have told Sputnik, commenting on the findings of a recent ICM Research poll.

"The EU institutions and some governments have no perception about the citizen opinion about Russia, and they don't know the important message — the EU citizens would like a more independent Europe and more balanced relations with Russia," Luca Volonte, a former Chairman of the EPP Group in the Council of Europe told Sputnik Friday, when asked about the ICM poll, which suggests that 46 percent of Europeans see the EU acting independently.

The poll, conducted by the ICM Research exclusively for the Sputnik News Agency, also revealed that only 28 percent thought Brussels is independent in its actions, and 27 percent of Europeans think that the union has implemented sanctions against Russia under the influence of the United States.

"The EU should work only in accordance with its own treaties and the expectations of their peoples, and should do so only in a way which contributes to peace and stability in Europe," Willy Wimmer, former vice president of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), told Sputnik Friday.

55 percent of ICM poll respondents also stressed that there should be no more financial aid to Ukraine, with particularly high figures in France and in the United Kingdom – 66 and 59 percent, respectively.

"In a time of economic crisis this is very understandable and obvious," Volonte explained.

Wimmer also said that there should be no more "German blood for foreign wars". He emphasized that Germany should not be sending money to governments, "which have fascist branches in their military and conduct aggression against their own population".

According to the ICM poll, 54 percent of Europeans believe that anti-Russia sanctions, imposed by the West against Russia over its alleged involvement in the situation in Ukraine, have negatively affected hopes for the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, which escalated in mid-April, when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the southeast, who refused to recognize the new Kiev government that came to power after a coup in February.

Willy Wimmer argues that all sanctions against Russia should be lifted without preconditions on January 1, 2015.

"The German government should stop immediately any cooperation with private organizations like the Soros foundation and similar organizations and stop any cooperation of the party foundations of the government, forming parties with organizations, which are not established by the governments," Wimmer told Sputnik.

He also reminded that Germany and Russia have a long history of economic cooperation, which stretches back for over 150 Years.

Luca Volonte, who is also the president of the Novae Terrae foundation, summarized that the ICM poll is very useful as it proves that it is becoming more and more evident that a large part of European citizens believe in a new political role of the European Union, which is currently standing between Russia and the United States.

The ICM Research questioned over 3,000 people in Germany, the United Kingdom, and France. Telephone interviews with adults in the three countries were conducted in December, 2014.