By Julia Payne<\/p>\n
BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuters) – European Union envoys are set to adopt a 20th package of sanctions against Russia, with Slovakia and Hungary expected to drop their opposition to the move following \u200cthe repair of the Druzhba oil pipeline, EU diplomats said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The measures would deepen Europe\u2019s effort \u200cto choke off Russian energy revenue and military supplies, as Kyiv seeks stronger action from allies more than four years into Moscow\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n
The \u200bEU had hoped to adopt the package to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine in February but could not do so without unanimous backing.<\/p>\n
“We have received a signal that oil supplies may resume, and I can only state that we are prepared to support even a 20th sanctions package against Russia, as, according to our assessment, it would \u200cnot have a significant impact on \u2060the Slovak economy. However, we will do so only once Russian oil arrives in Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline,” Slovakia’s foreign minister said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Flows through Russia’s Druzhba pipeline, a major \u2060crude oil artery to Europe, are expected to resume on Wednesday for the first time since a January drone strike hit the pipeline. Hungary’s outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban was fiercely opposed to adopting more sanctions until flows resumed. He also blocked \u200ba previously \u200bagreed 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
EU countries stopped short \u200bof greenlighting a full maritime services ban on \u200cRussian oil – one of the flagship restrictions in this proposal. Envoys agreed on the ban “in principle”, diplomats said, but delayed taking any decision on implementation until after further coordination with the Group of Seven nations (G7).<\/p>\n
If eventually enforced, the ban could mark an end to the G7 price cap set in 2022, which allowed third-country buyers of Russian crude oil to use Western insurance and shipping services if the purchase price did not exceed $60 a barrel – a move that was meant \u200cto mitigate the impact of sanctions on the global economy. The price \u200bwas lowered to $44.10\/bl this year by a coalition of G7 members and \u200ballies but not the United States.<\/p>\n
The 20th package \u200balso targets Russia’s military industrial complex, particularly its drone-making capacities, its shadow fleet and would \u200cintroduce a phased ban on services for Russian liquefied natural \u200bgas and icebreakers.<\/p>\n
The restrictions are \u200bcoupled with full listings, which include asset freezes and business bans, on major Russian refineries and producers.<\/p>\n
For the first time, the EU would use the anti-circumvention tool against a third country – Kyrgyzstan, ban dealings with \u200ba third-country oil port and introduce clauses \u200cprotecting EU intellectual property and companies from Russian legal claims in third countries. The European Commission initially \u200bproposed listing two third country ports but diplomats only agreed to keep the one in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
(Reporting \u200bby Julia Payne, Editing by Timothy Heritage and William Maclean)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Julia Payne BRUSSELS, April 22 (Reuters) – European Union envoys are set to adopt a 20th package…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[14509,14508,39,1301,40,5997,16,1403,1401],"class_list":{"0":"post-19981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-diplomats","9":"tag-druzhba-oil-pipeline","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-eu-countries","12":"tag-european-union","13":"tag-full-scale-invasion","14":"tag-russia","15":"tag-russian-energy","16":"tag-russian-oil"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}