Press
The EU is once again increasing its sanctions because of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. Companies in Turkey and China, for example, are also affected.
Luxembourg – Due to the ongoing Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the European Union is imposing new sanctions. The foreign ministers of the 27 EU states formally adopted the 14th package of punitive measures in Luxembourg.
In particular, it is intended to make it more difficult to circumvent existing sanctions. Violations of the current rules mean, for example, that Russia’s arms industry can still use Western technology to produce weapons for the war against Ukraine.
The sanctions
In addition to measures against sanctions evasion, the package also provides for the first-ever imposition of tough EU sanctions on Russia’s multi-billion dollar liquefied natural gas (LNG) business. This prohibits ports such as the one in Zeebrugge, Belgium, from being used to ship Russian LNG to third countries. Ideally, this will lead to Russia being able to sell less liquefied natural gas and invest less money in its war of aggression due to a lack of transport capacity.
The new package also includes sanctions against dozens of other companies that are accused of contributing to Russia’s military and technological strengthening or the development of its defense and security sector. In future, the EU will no longer be allowed to sell goods and technologies that can be used for military purposes to them. According to the EU, some of these companies are based in third countries such as China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
The permanent representatives of the EU states reached an agreement on the new sanctions package last Thursday in Brussels after tough negotiations. The federal government managed to water down plans for stricter measures against sanctions evasion in favor of the German economy. The reason for this was warnings from companies who feared excessive administrative costs and loss of sales. dpa
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