New EU sanctions against Russia are unlikely to be ready for the G7 summit - EUobserver
Kyiv • UNN
Despite the US call for coordinated action, a new package of EU sanctions against Russia is unlikely to be ready for the G7 summit. Hungary may block some proposals.
The next round of EU sanctions against Russia is unlikely to be ready for the G7 summit, despite the US call for coordinated action, EUobserver reports, writes UNN.
Details
Four EU diplomats in a conversation with EUobserver on Monday, June 2, cooled the ardor of US senators who said that "by the G7 summit we hope to introduce [new] sanctions - in coordination with Europe."
The G7 summit will be held in Alberta, Canada on June 16, and will be attended by the EU, USA, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain, Canada and Japan.
The US Senate intends to adopt a new sanctions bill next week to limit oil and uranium exports from Russia, while the European Commission is already drafting a proposal for the 18th EU sanctions package.
American senators who support sanctions, Lindsey Graham (from the US President Donald Trump's Republican Party) and Richard Blumenthal (from the opposition Democratic Party) visited France and Germany this weekend to push their EU allies.
"We all agreed that if China and India stop buying cheap Russian oil, Putin's war machine will stop," the senators said in a joint statement after meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Sunday.
Graham also met with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Berlin on Monday, who said in her speech: "The EU is preparing its 18th package of tough sanctions targeting Russia's energy revenues, including the Nord Stream infrastructure, Russia's banking sector and lowering the oil price cap."
"These steps, taken jointly with US measures, will sharply increase the joint impact of our sanctions," she added.
Nord Stream is a Russian-German gas pipeline that was closed after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.
The oil price ceiling is a G7-level ban on buying Russian oil at market prices above $60 per barrel.
Von der Leyen welcomed the US Senate initiative, which assured Trump's Western allies that he is still on their side in the war in Ukraine.
Graham and Blumenthal also said that 82 out of 100 senators support their measures.
And they doubted that a new round of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, which also took place in Istanbul on Monday, would change Putin's mind about continuing the war. "Unfortunately, we believe that Monday's meeting will lead to another demand from Russia that will be unrealistic," they said in their statement on Sunday.
But, despite all this, the wheels of EU institutions in Brussels are turning more slowly than in Washington, the publication writes.
We haven't even received the legal texts for the 18th package, so an agreement in two weeks [for the G7] seems very ambitious
A diplomat from another EU country said that the 18th package is likely to be ready by the "end of June", just before the last meetings of foreign ministers and EU leaders before the summer holidays.
The third diplomat said: "I think it can be done [for the G7], but I would bet on the EU summit [at the end of June]."
The fourth diplomat said: "It depends on the content of the package, but [June 16] seems ambitious."
EU ambassadors will discuss US pressure and the EU's response at a closed-door meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
Von der Leyen's remarks on targeting "Russia's energy revenues" could lead to proposals to stop EU countries from buying Putin's liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth 7 billion euros a year.
But Kremlin-friendly Hungary has vetoed this and other ideas in the past, leading to delays and making it even less likely that the EU will meet the G7 deadline.
Meanwhile, the Graham-Blumenthal bill could also cause headaches in other EU countries if passed in its current form.
The bill provides for "devastating" US tariffs of 500 percent on all imports from buyers of Russian oil, gas or uranium.
It is designed to hit China and India, Putin's main energy clients, but could also hit Hungary and Slovakia, which still buy Russian oil.
It could harm Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain, which buy Russian gas.
And it could put the Czech Republic and Finland in the US crosshairs over their purchases of Russian nuclear fuel.