The European Union is discussing a sixth round of sanctions against Russia, including a blow to the Russian energy market, a senior European Commission official and Lithuania’s finance minister said on Friday.
European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said one of the issues under consideration concerns a Russian oil embargo. There have been discussions of “smart sanctions” that could include tariffs rather than a full embargo at the outset.
In another interview with CNNLithuanian Finance Minister Gintarė Skaistė said she discussed a possible next tranche of sanctions with US Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo.
“We are always offering to include sanctions on the energy sector, especially oil,” as well as “additional sanctions on Russia’s financial sector,” Skaistė said.
Skaistė said sanctions must be coordinated for them to have an impact. “If we don’t agree on sanctions together, it won’t work,” she said.
Dombrovskis said that “technically speaking, sanctions approval can happen very quickly, in a matter of a day or two.”
“The issue here is basically that sanctions require unanimity among member states, so these political discussions are happening in parallel, so it’s important to reach unanimous political agreement,” she said.
Skaistė said it was too early to say when there would be an agreement on the next round of sanctions. She noted that there is a short-term and long-term objective to the sanctions: to lure Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and weaken Russia’s economy so that it is unable to bolster its military.
“If there are no possibilities to reinforce your army, we would like to think that there will be no war in Europe,” she said.
Source: CNN Brasil
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