Keystone-SDA
The leaders of the 27 member countries of the European Union, gathered at the top in Brussels, gave their agreement on Thursday to extend their sanctions against Russia for an additional six months. The EU has adopted 17 “packages” of sanctions against Moscow since 2022.
(Keystone-ATS) These sanctions must be renewed unanimously of the 27 every six months and Hungary, the country closest to Russia in the EU, regularly threatens to oppose it. In January, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban maintained the suspense to the end, before giving the green light.
EU leaders also discussed a 18th package of sanctions on Thursday, proposed two weeks ago by the European Commission, but no decision could be made, this time, of a veto of Slovakia.
Prime Minister Slovak Robert Fico opposes it to put pressure on the European Commission so that it guarantees its gas supply, when the EU seeks to fully interrupt its imports of Russian gas by 2027.
Oil in the viewfinder
The EU seeks to reduce Russia’s petroleum income and proposed on June 10 to 45 to 45 dollars the ceiling for the sale price of the Russian oil barrel as part of this 18th pack of sanctions. The price of oil is currently well above 60 dollars, this new threshold of $ 45 should not be retained at the moment.
According to the head of European diplomacy Kaja Kallas, the threshold of $ 60 has reduced Russia’s oil revenues by 30%, essential to the financing of its war against Ukraine.
Russia, however, was a “ghost” fleet of oil tankers to bypass this ban, estimated at more than 500 ships, which the EU has already targeted. As part of this 18th sanctions, the EU wants to add 70 “ghosts” tankers to its list of ships already used by Moscow, which currently has 342 names.
Europeans also want to extend their sanctions to refined products from Russian oil, which continue to be imported via certain third countries such as Turkey.
The EU also plans to add 22 other Russian banks to its list of private financial institutions access to the international capital market via the SWIFT system. She also wants to add other companies, including Chinese women, to the black list of those who help the Russian army to bypass the sanctions already in place.
