As the Czech Republic takes over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), Jan Lipavsky told European journalists at the start of a visit to the Czech capital Prague, “The European Commission is already on a mission. A New Set of Economic Sanctions on Russia, the Seventh Set”.
Refusing to specify the content of these new control measures, the head of Czech diplomacy pointed out that there is “no deadline” for the new sanctions to be implemented.
Even so, in these statements to the European press, including Lusa, John Lipovsky insisted that Russia “continue to look at ways of withdrawing the war,” adding that the six packages already in place “are working.”
European sources agree that this new package will include adding more people to the sanctioned list (for example, a ban on traveling to the EU or owning assets in the Union), and financial sanctions (after which Russian banks have been suspended from the social space).
According to the same sources, no new sanctions on energy were added, after the EU moved forward with a ban on Russian coal (in the fifth set) and a partial ban on Russian oil (in the sixth set).
Other potential curbs on energy, such as Russian gas, could exacerbate the energy crisis the EU already finds itself in and worsened by the war, the same sources said at the time, amid fears of restrictions. In distribution in Russia next fall and winter.
In early June, the European Union approved a sixth set of sanctions against Russia over its military aggression against Ukraine, which provides for a progressive ban on Russian oil imports, leaving the head of the Orthodox Church on the list of individuals targeted by the restrictive measures. Pressure from Hungary.
The sixth and most recent set of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, proposed by the European Commission in early May, also stipulates the phasing out of all Russian oil imports to reduce European energy dependence. A year of humiliation for Hungary and Slovakia.
In the package, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was also able to remove Russian Orthodox Patriarch Cyril from the list of 58 people after obtaining exemptions for Hungary based on the oil embargo. Allowed.
The war caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the end of February worsened the energy crisis in which the European Union already found itself.
Geopolitical tensions caused by the war in Ukraine have affected the European energy market, as Russia accounts for 45% of European gas imports.
Russia supplies 25% of the EU’s oil imports and 45% of its coal.
