Joint press point

Thank you so much.
President Michel, 
Dear Charles,
It is a great honour to be back.
And thank you so much for inviting me to the European Council.
And thank you, also, for your personal commitment to the strategic partnership between the European Union and NATO.

This partnership is extremely important now when we face a full-fledged war in Europe. The war which goes on in Ukraine.

And I commend the European Union for the support you have provided to Ukraine, [it is] unprecedented. 
And also NATO Allies and NATO is providing unprecedented support to Ukraine. It demonstrates how we complement each other.

We work also together on many other areas, including on resilience of our critical infrastructure.

And we have a Task Force together. The European Commission, supported also by the European External Action Service.

And the report is released today on how we confirm the strength of what the European Union and NATO does together to protect energy, infrastructure, transport and other types of critical infrastructure.

Lastly, I will say that what is… the situation in Kosovo also demonstrates the importance of NATO-EU cooperation.

NATO strongly supports the efforts of the European Union, the diplomatic efforts, the EU-facilitated dialogue.

With our military presence on the ground, the KFOR forces, we have increased our presence there.

And we call on all the parties to de-escalate, to refrain from any action that can further increase tensions and to engage in good faith in the EU-facilitated dialogue.

So once again, Charles, I very much look forward to the meeting today.

Journalist
Mr Stoltenberg, what does this Wagner mutiny mean for Europe stability and also how much you react, concern when, maybe instability in Russia in the future?

NATO Secretary General 
The mutiny we saw at the weekend demonstrates that there are cracks and divisions within the Russian system. At the same time, it is important to underline that these are internal Russian matters and it's too early to draw any final conclusions also because it's not yet clear how many Wagner forces that will end up in Belarus or other places. What matters for NATO is that we will continue to support Ukraine. At the Summit, I expect the new announcements of military support to Ukraine, we'll also agree a multi-year program to help Ukraine and move towards NATO to be fully interoperable with NATO. So we just need to continue to support Ukraine and ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation in Europe.

Journalist
Are you adjusting your support to Ukraine after the events this week in Russia and how?

NATO Secretary General 
We are, together with European Union, NATO Allies have provided unprecedented support and we are stepping up just over the last weeks we have seen new announcements from EU but also from NATO Allies of additional support and also the training of the F-16 pilots have started.

President of the European Council Charles Michel responds

Journalist
On Kosovo, there is criticism that the EU is punishing President –Prime Minister Kurti [inaudible]?

President of the European Council Charles Michel responds

Journalist
Ukraine, what security guarantees until NATO-EU membership, should there be new security guarantees for Ukraine?

NATO Secretary General 
At the NATO Summit, we will address Ukraine's membership aspirations and I'm absolutely confident that NATO Allies will send a very strong message of support to Ukraine, we also have to remember that all NATO Allies agrees that NATO's door is open. This is demonstrated recently by inviting Finland and Sweden to become members of the Alliance. We also agree that Ukraine will become a member of the Alliance and we agree that it is not for Russia, but for the NATO Allies and Ukraine to decide when the time is right to extend the full invitation for Ukraine to join. The most important thing and the most immediate and urgent task is to support Ukraine, to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation in Europe because unless we are able to do that there is no membership issue to be discussed at all and let me also mention that this is also where an area where we see a link with the European Union because of course the EU decision to grant Ukraine candidate status, of course also has an impact on the discussions which are taking place within NATO.

Journalist
Last week, European Commission discuss the preliminary assessment of reports. How optimistic you are –on Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova –to grant candidate status to Georgia this year and open discussions for future membership?

President of the European Council Charles Michel responds