The Ambassadors of the twenty-seven member States of the European Union met this Wednesday to discuss a new round of sanctions about Russiathis time aimed at your liquefied natural gas in ports of the old continent. It would be the fourteenth package since the start of the war in Ukraine, in February 2022.
The proposal seeks to have a considerable impact on Russian finances and could be implemented as early as June.
Precisely, the sanctions would act on the transfer of LNG in European ports, which mostly arrives through terminals in Belgium, France and Spain. In the case of the first, the company Fluxys – which operates as manager of the product transport network – has a 25-year contract with the Russian company Yamal LNG by which the gas is transferred and stored at the Zeebrugge terminal and then largely re-exported to Asia.
Since the start of the conflict, purchases of Russian pipeline gas in Europe have been reduced by 71%, but purchases of liquefied natural gas have remained stable. Thus, the sanctions would seek to put an end to these maneuvers that allow the Kremlin continue trading with the world through European links and benefit from these income to finance its war offensive.
In parallel, some of the twenty-seven asked to act on the russian fleet that operates “in the shadows” in the Baltic Sea and with the help of ships from third countriesthanks to what continues to export oil banned by the EU.
Likewise, the Ambassadors also addressed the proposal of transfer profits from frozen Russian funds to Ukraine in Western accounts and reached a principle of agreement on it.
“The EU Ambassadors agreed, in principle, on measures on the extraordinary profits of Russia’s immobilized assets,” reported the Belgian presidency of the Council of the organization and specified that the money “will be used to support recovery and military defense of Ukraine in the context of Russian aggression.”
The idea has been under debate for months and seeks to assist Volodimir Zelensky’s troops with weapons at a time when artillery shipments are presenting obstacles, as well as in the future contribute to the country’s recovery. The total benefits generated in these more than two years of conflict range between 2,500 and 3,000 million euros annually.
After this Wednesday’s agreement, the first money transfer will be made in June. He 90% of the total will be allocated to European Peace Support Fund (FEAP), an instrument through which the countries of the bloc co-finance the shipment of weapons to the country. The remaining 10% will go to the macro-financial aid package for this war of the general budget of the Union.
This year, members agreed to provide 50,000 million euros to Ukraine over the next four years, to be disbursed in the form of loans and subsidies by 33 billion and 17 billion of euros, respectively
(With information from EFE)
