Cologne, June 8 (IANS/DPA): German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has praised the European Union as a guarantor of peace and freedom.

"This great good fortune of the European Union did not fall from the sky for us Germans," Baerbock said on Friday evening at an election campaign event organized by the Greens for the European elections in Cologne.

Other countries had forgiven Germany after World War II and given it new confidence; The European Union had been built on this, the minister said. Now everything must be done to ensure that the people of Ukraine can one day live in peace and freedom again, she added.

Support for Ukraine is not in contradiction to peace talks, on the contrary, it is a prerequisite for them, Baerbock said to strong applause in the Ehrenfeld district, one of the largest Green strongholds in Germany.

Green Party Chairwoman Ricarda Lang pointed out that, according to initial forecasts, the European elections in the Netherlands had been won by an alliance of Greens and Social Democrats. The radical right-wing party of populist Geert Wilders only came in second place.

It is therefore possible to beat the right, she said. The predicted shift to the right is "not set in stone," she said.