EU parliament chief: there's no coming back to the world we knew before Feb.24

TVN24 correspondent in Brussels Maciej Sokołowski spoke with the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola about war crimes committed in Ukraine on the orders of Vladimir Putin. The reporter asked the president if the EU parliament should adopt a resolution naming the Russian leader a war criminal.

"First of all I would say 'yes'. For me these are international war crimes that are being committed, the International Criminal Court needs to be given the competencies or the resources possible for all these actions to be prosecuted, and whoever who have committed them to be held responsible, said the EP president.

Asked if she believed if it was possible that Putin would stand before the court, Metsola said that "we need to see that what we lived in before the 24th of February, we will never go back to that". "There is a world before the 24th of February, and the world after the 24th of February. Whose fault and whose responsibility is that? I place that directly at the feet of president Putin," she added.

The EU parliament chief head was also commented on the support the Ukrainian people have been receiving in countries like Poland.

"First of all, I need to commend the absolute solidarity and openness of Poland and its people to welcome millions of Ukrainians fleeing (for) their lives, fleeing their homes and realising that it will be a while before they can go back to their homes, the cities that they love and live in, and which they have been protecting for so many years. That is true European solidarity and we need to make sure that we acknowledge that, because this European Union and its people have opened not only their homes, their countries, but also their hearts," Metsola said.

"And that's something we should be proud of, and you should be proud of what your country has done. At the same time we need to make sure that all the mayors on the ground, the local authorities, regional authorities, the NGOs, the civil society actors, the people are given the resources that they need. We need to make sure that the legal framework is given to them, for example to protect whoever is crossing dangerously from one border to another," she stressed.

EU parliament chief was also asked about the money for Poland from the EU recovery fund being blocked. "I would say that the rule of law needs to be protected everywhere, in every member state. My country, Malta, joined the same day as Poland. Huge advances were made for our people to be able to feel that the fundamental values are protecting them, that no government considers itself above the law, and that the rule of law is really defended everywhere. That is the position of the parliament, it is the position that I will uphold, and will not allow for anything to be backslid in that manner in any country," Roberta Metsola promised.