French Senate May Urge Government to Drop Anti-Russia Sanctions

The upper-house of the French parliament is likely to urge scrapping sanctions on Russia by the end of the current session, a senator told Sputnik France on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The motion to drop restrictions against Russia will be debated in both houses of the national parliament later this year. In the Senate, it will be brought up in reports due by end May or early June and take on the form of a non-binding draft resolution, Senator Jean Bizet said.

"We have already had several debates on this issue," Bizet said. "I think we have been working up to this and there will be a positive reaction, considering the results [impact of sanctions] that we have seen."

Bizet, who presides over the Senate’s European Affairs Committee, said that the Senate was going to hear two reports that, he said, were "likely to recommend lifting individual and economic sanctions."

"This will likely be in the form of a resolution proposal that will inform the government about the Senate’s stance on this issue," he said, adding "We want to address the government before the end of the session."

The lower-house National Assembly is due to vote on April 28 on whether France should keep the restrictions on Russia, which were imposed over its reunification with Crimea in 2014. It was proposed by Thierry Mariani who had previously headed several delegations to Russia.