Brussels is preparing a move that could reshape how the bloc targets Moscow, while disagreements among member states remain a major obstacle.<\/p>\n
The European Union is preparing the largest expansion of its sanctions lists since the beginning of Russia\u2019s full-scale war against Ukraine. Around 1,600 individuals and entities could be added, many of them linked to Russia\u2019s military-industrial complex.<\/p>\n
The European External Action Service is preparing the proposals. According to an EU diplomat familiar with the process, the draft sanctions are expected to be presented to EU ambassadors in the Committee of Permanent Representatives in early September. A final decision is expected in October.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the forthcoming measures will not constitute a new sectoral package. They will specifically involve adding individuals and entities to the EU\u2019s existing sanctions lists.<\/p>\n
EU wants to update sanctions lists regularly<\/p>\n
The European External Action Service also plans to make the preparation of individual sanctions a regular process. New proposals could be drawn up monthly and, where possible, approved at each meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council.<\/p>\n
According to the diplomat, some lists may already concern people and organizations involved in human rights violations and Russia\u2019s hybrid operations as early as September.<\/p>\n
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas previously announced a major expansion of the sanctions. She said the new list could increase the total number of sanctioned Russian individuals, companies, and organizations by approximately one-third.<\/p>\n
This autumn, I will present the largest sanctions list since the beginning of the war. If adopted, it will immediately increase by one-third the number of Russian individuals, companies, and organizations subject to sanctions<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kaja Kallas<\/p>\n
According to Kallas, the European Union\u2019s previous sanctions have cost Russia more than one trillion euros. She also called July the deadliest month for Ukraine\u2019s civilian population since the beginning of the full-scale invasion and described Russia\u2019s attacks as systematic terror.<\/p>\n
The EU representative emphasized that pressure on Moscow must continue to increase until Russia ends its war against Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Will sectoral restrictions return?<\/p>\n
The European Union does not currently expect the new expansion of the sanctions lists to be used as a way to reintroduce all the sectoral measures that were not included in the 21st sanctions package adopted in July.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure what the European Commission is planning next after the 21st package was scaled back. I doubt they will try to push each of those sectoral restrictions separately again<\/p>\n
\u2013 EU diplomat<\/p>\n
Negotiations on the 21st package showed that reaching unanimity among the EU\u2019s 27 member states is becoming increasingly difficult. At the request of certain countries, restrictions on Russia\u2019s fishing industry and some individual sanctions were removed from the final document.<\/p>\n
In particular, Bulgaria secured the removal from the list of Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church and Lukoil founder Vagit Alekperov.<\/p>\n
France and Italy opposed a complete ban on entry to the EU for Russians who had taken part in the war against Ukraine. As a result, the European Union created a legal basis for such restrictions, but the Council of the EU still has to decide whether to apply them in practice.<\/p>\n
Thus, the EU\u2019s new sanctions expansion will most likely focus on individual restrictions rather than on attempting to reintroduce broad sectoral measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brussels is preparing a move that could reshape how the bloc targets Moscow, while disagreements among member states…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[140],"tags":[2835,444,86129,442,7227,50,9657,86130,86131],"class_list":["post-192147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-kaja-kallas","tag-eu-foreign-policy","tag-eu-sanctions","tag-eu-sanctions-russia-sanctions-sanctions-list-expansion-russian-military-industrial-complex-kaya-kallas-eu-foreign-policy","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-kaya-kallas","tag-news","tag-russia-sanctions","tag-russian-military-industrial-complex","tag-sanctions-list-expansion"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117112362977840385","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}