EU's Borrell says hopes for Russian oil sanctions soon. The European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Tuesday he hoped for a deal soon on an EU oil embargo on Russia, possibly for EU foreign ministers to agree.
Foreign ministers are due to meet on Monday, May 16. Borrell said last week he could also call an emergency meeting of the ministers to sign off on the sanctions if they were ready, or to move negotiations forward.
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If EU ambassadors could not agree this week, he also said foreign ministers could try to break any deadlock, in a bid to win over reluctant states, particularly Hungary. The European Commission proposed the oil embargo on May 4.
In a speech before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced new severe measures against the Russian Federation, including an end to the importation of crude and refined oil to the EU by December 2022.
Banking sector
With his war on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin “was sinking his own country, Russia”, von der Leyen told lawmakers. Phasing out the dependency of some EU countries on Russian oil would “not be easy”, she pointed out, but had to be done nonetheless. Von der Leyen promised this would be implemented in “an orderly fashion”.
She also named other sanctions to be imposed on Russia.”We are listing high ranking military officers and individuals who committed war crimes in Bucha and those who are responsible for the inhuman siege of Mariupol. We know who you are, we hold you accountable, you are not getting away with this!”
In addition, the largest Russian bank Sberbank – which controls around 37 percent of the country’s banking sector – and other two other major banks in Russia are to be excluded from the payment system SWIFT. “This will hamper Putin’s ability to wage destruction”, said von der Leyen.
Services
Moreover, consulting and accounting services provided by EU companies and individuals to Russian companies will be prohibited if the proposals are adopted by the 27 member states of the EU. The Commission president also proposed banning several “state-owned Russian broadcasters from our airwaves”. The measure would include a total ban for TV stations which she called “mouthpieces that amplify Putin’s lies and propaganda aggressively.”
Von der Leyen pledged economic and financial support to Ukraine. She said the Ukrainian economy was expected to shrink by 35 to 50 percent compared to 2021 and need around 5 billion euros every month just to keep afloat. The EU already said it would lift all duties and taxes on Ukrainian products imported into the EU single market.
The EU is tightening measures against Russia and wants to ban the import of Russian oil by the end of the year.
The Council today decided to prolong the restrictive measures currently targeting specific sectors of the Russian economy until 31 July 2021. These sanctions were imposed in 2014 in response to Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine.
The Council decision follows the latest assessment of the state of implementation of the Minsk agreements – initially foreseen to take place by 31 December 2015 – at the European Council of 10-11 December 2020. Given that the Minsk agreements are not fully implemented by Russia, EU leaders unanimously took the political decision to roll-over the economic sanctions against Russia.
The sanctions limit access to EU primary and secondary capital markets for certain Russian banks and companies and prohibit forms of financial assistance and brokering towards Russian financial institutions. The measures also prohibit the direct or indirect import, export or transfer of all defence-related materiel and establish a ban for dual-use goods for military use or military-end users in Russia. The sanctions further curtail Russian access to certain sensitive technologies that can be used in the Russian energy sector, for instance in oil production and exploration.
In addition to economic sanctions, the EU has in place different types of measures in response to Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and the deliberate destabilisation of Ukraine. These include: diplomatic measures, individual restrictive measures (asset freezes and travel restrictions) and specific restrictions on economic relations with Crimea and Sevastopol.
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