The EU is preparing further sanctions against Russia, despite Moscow's call to remove one of its largest banks from them in exchange for a partial ceasefire, EUobserver reports, writes UNN.
Details
Work on the 17th package of sanctions "has started, but it is a very early stage," one EU diplomat told EUobserver on Thursday, March 27.
"We are waiting for proposals from the [EU] Commission," said a second diplomat.
"The External Affairs Service and the EU Commission are working on this... proposals are likely to be presented in early summer," said a third diplomat.
A fourth diplomat expressed caution about the timing, saying: "It's too speculative at the moment. We need to see how the US, Russia and Ukraine [peace] talks develop."
In a legally separate but politically related process, EU ambassadors also agreed on Wednesday on a "negotiating mandate" for punitive tariffs on imports of Russian fertilizers.
The behind-the-scenes work in the EU institutions in Brussels is taking place against the backdrop of a summit of 27 EU states, the United Kingdom and Ukraine in Paris on Thursday.
The leaders met after the US and Russia agreed on a partial ceasefire in the war in Ukraine that would only extend to the Black Sea.
Putin later said he would only implement the deal if the EU fully allowed one of his banks, Rosselkhozbank, to return to the Belgian international payment system SWIFT.
Other Russian banks involved in agricultural exports should also receive partial relief, Moscow said.
But French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer told the press that this was out of the question.
European Council President António Costa also told leaders at a meeting in Paris that "it would be a strategic mistake to give in to the temptation of early sanctions relief," according to an EU official.
Addition
The EU has cut off 23 Russian banks from SWIFT, covering all major lenders except Gazprombank, which handles international gas transactions. Other EU sanctions include: freezing about €210 billion of Russian central bank assets, an embargo on trade with Russia worth €140 billion a year, as well as visa bans and asset freezes on 2,400 Russian individuals and legal entities.