Wed. Oct 16th, 2024
Brussels, 19 September 2022
See question(s) : E-002736/2022
EN
E-002736/2022
Answer given by High Representative/Vice-President Borrell i Fontelles
on behalf of the European Commission
(19.9.2022)
The 19 diplomats from the Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU were declared personae non gratae for engaging in activities contrary to their diplomatic status, in breach of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This decision was taken in response to Russia’s illegal and disruptive actions against the interests and security of the EU and EU Members States.
The Commission can confirm that neither Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis nor any member of his cabinet has had contacts with Mr Logvinov. This was also checked and communicated to the EU Observer as soon as they contacted the Commission on this matter.  Detecting, countering and disrupting the activities conducted by Russian espionage against the Commission and staff have always been top priorities for the Commission’s Security Directorate. The Commission has put in place measures to permanently assess the level of the threat. All these are corroborated with constant security briefings to raise the counterintelligence awareness among staff.
A critical element of all these security procedures is intensive cooperation with the security bodies of the member states and other (EU) institutions.
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