The Member States of the European Union have agreed on the fourth package of punishments against Russia to punish him for son invasion of Ukraine, France announced late Monday.
The details of the sanctions were not immediately disclosed, but France, which holds the EU presidency, said the bloc “in consultation with our international partners, approved the fourth package of sanctions aimed at the persons and entities involved in aggression against Ukraine, as well as several sectors of the Russian economy.”
The French presidency has declared in a statement that the block also endorsed a statement to the World Trade Organization (WTO)”on suspend the app of the most favored nation clause for Russia and suspension of the exam of application from Belarus for joining the WTO.
If Russia is suspended, its companies will no longer receive special treatment throughout the block. This could open the door to the bloc banning or imposing punitive tariffs on Russian goods and put Russia on a pair with North Korea or Iran.
The penalties were set include an import ban on Russian steel and iron, an export ban on luxury goods, including cars worth more more than 50,000 euros ($55,000) and a ban on investments in oil companies and the energy sector, diplomatic sources told Reuters earlier in the day.
They would like also add chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich and 14 others to EU list of sanctioned Russian billionaires, diplomats said.
the announcements were in line with what the leaders had announced at the top of Versailles last Friday, that a strict package of sanctions would be coming if Russia continued son invasion of Ukraine.
The exact details of the latest package of the sanctions will not be known until the publication in that of the EU official newspaper.
Since the start of the war last months, the EU adopted tough measures against Russian President Vladimir Putin, financial system and its high-maintenance oligarchs.
Last week, the nations of the bloc agreed to impose new sanctions on 160 people and added new restriction on export of maritime navigation and radiocommunication technology.
They also decided to exclude three Belarusian banks from SWIFT, the main system for global financial transactions. Overall, the EU restrictive measures now apply to a total of 862 individuals and 53 entities.
In a statement released after the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the fourth package of the sanctions will further isolate Russia “and deplete the resources it uses to fund this barbaric war.”
She said the EU work in step by step with G-7 countries ramp up pressure against Moscow.
She also said the EU was working to suspend Russia membership rights of leading multilateral institutions, including the Monetary Fund international (IMF) and the World Bank.
Efforts to get along on an oil boycott against Russia is complicatedbecause some EU countries, including Germany and Italy, are much more dependent than others on Russian energy.
Showing the range within the EU, Poland gets 67% of son oil from Russia while Ireland receives only 5%.
