The European Union is considering a major shift in its sanctions policy toward Russia by moving away from large, comprehensive sanctions packages in favor of more targeted and thematic measures. The change follows weeks of negotiations over the bloc’s 21st sanctions package, which was delayed after Greece opposed key provisions to protect a domestic shipping company.<\/p>\n
According to the Financial Times<\/em>, EU officials increasingly believe the 21st sanctions package, formally adopted on July 23, could be the last broad package of its kind. Officials argue that negotiating extensive packages has become increasingly difficult because a single member state can delay or weaken measures that are unrelated to its own concerns.<\/p>\n The dispute centered on Dynagas, a Greek shipping company owned by billionaire George Prokopiou. Athens blocked the sanctions package after objecting to a proposed ban on transporting Russian liquefied natural gas to non-EU countries. Greek authorities argued that the restriction would severely damage Dynagas and undermine Europe’s maritime services industry. The company operates 11 vessels, including seven Arctic-class icebreaking carriers used in Russia’s Yamal LNG project.<\/p>\n Greece was not alone in raising concerns during negotiations. France, Italy, Germany, Austria, Portugal, and several other member states also expressed reservations about parts of the proposal.<\/p>\n A compromise brokered by Ireland allowed an exemption lasting one year, with the possibility of renewal. Under the agreement, companies may continue transporting Russian LNG to third countries under contracts signed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Transport volumes will be capped at 2025 levels.<\/p>\n Despite the concessions, the package still introduces significant restrictions. It freezes the Russian oil price cap at $44.10 per barrel for 12 months, targets 94 Russian financial institutions, imposes transaction bans on 33 banks, and adds more than 250 individuals and entities to the sanctions list.<\/p>\n The debate has reinforced calls within Brussels for a more flexible approach. Earlier in June, the EU approved a smaller sanctions package independently from the broader negotiations, signaling a possible shift toward incremental measures. Officials now suggest future sanctions could be adopted individually or in smaller thematic groups, making it more difficult for one member state to block unrelated measures.<\/p>\n The latest negotiations also resulted in several changes compared with the Commission’s original proposal. Planned restrictions on Russian fish imports were removed, some disputed names were dropped from the blacklist, and the LNG exemption remained in place.<\/p>\n Some officials have warned that the agreement could create a lasting precedent. They argue that the annual review mechanism attached to the LNG exemption may give Greece continued leverage over future sanctions discussions by allowing it to threaten a veto if the exemption is not extended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The European Union is considering a major shift in its sanctions policy toward Russia by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1855,4166,883,3429,3424],"class_list":["post-4277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-european-union","tag-greece","tag-lng","tag-russia","tag-sanctions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4278,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4277\/revisions\/4278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zawaya24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}