Negotiations among EU member states to extend sanctions against Russia for the military invasion of Ukraine are already underway in the Council, a debate in which Hungary is asking to remove nine people from the ‘blacklist’ on the basis of an opinion of the Council’s legal services that such a review is possible.
With a view to extending the measures, a technical decision in principle with few adjustments, the EU-27 are already holding meetings at the level of Council working groups, several diplomatic sources have informed Europa Press, who point out the active role of the Hungarian representatives to remove nine individuals from the list of those sanctioned for the Russian invasion.
These cases have already been studied by the Council’s legal services, which consider that the evidence is sufficient to remove them from the sanctions regime, so the consulted sources point out that it is now a purely political and not a legal debate.
«As always: we are not sure whether Hungary only barks or also bites,» said the diplomatic source about the strategy of the Magyar country to advance its interests despite the majority agreement of the EU. In this regard, Viktor Orban’s government managed to get the bloc not to sanction the top representative of the Orthodox Church in Russia, Patriarch Kirill, as a concession to unblock the sanctions package that introduced the embargo on Russian oil.
In fact, this measure does not affect Hungary either, as it managed to limit, together with other landlocked European countries, the veto on Russian crude oil only to supplies arriving by sea.
Hungary has become the main obstacle that the rest of the EU has to overcome every time the pressure against Moscow increases due to the military aggression against Ukraine and although they have not blocked the adoption of sanctions, which requires the unanimity of the EU-27, they usually generate problems in the procedural phase.
At a press conference in Brussels, EU Foreign Affairs spokesman Peter Stano explained that during the review of sanctions regimes, individuals can be removed from the ‘blacklist’ if the sanctions meet their objective, which «is to change the behavior of individuals».
In this regard, Stano pointed out that changes can be made provided that there is sufficient evidence to justify it and that the step is unanimous among the Member States. In this respect, Poland and the Baltics have expressed their willingness not to allow any relaxation of measures against Russia.
In any case, the extension of the sanctions must first be agreed within the internal bodies of the Council and then receive the green light from the ambassadors of the EU-27 to the EU and from the European ministers meeting in the Council.
The EU has so far adopted nine rounds of sanctions against Russia for the military attack on Ukraine and keeps 1386 individuals and 171 entities on its blacklist, and applies economic, trade, financial and sanctions against Russian media.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)