EU foreign ministers fail to agree on ninth package of sanctions against Russia

Josep Borrell announced that EU foreign ministers failed to agree on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia.

As announced on Monday, December 12, by Josep Borrell, the head of European diplomacy, following a meeting, the heads of the Foreign Ministries of the EU countries were unable to agree on a new, ninth package of sanctions against Russia.

He added that they will continue to work on a solution and that the EU may also expand the European Peace Fund – which finances arms supplies to Ukraine – by €3.5 billion.

“We discussed the ninth package of sanctions, but the decision will be made later. We hope to agree on them by the end of the week”, Josep Borrell said at a press conference following the meeting.

According to him, the foreign ministers agreed on restrictions against individuals and some legal entities. He explained that about 200 people and organisations will eventually be included in the sanctions lists.

It is believed that during the meeting, some of the topics of discussion included whether the EU should include restrictions against the supply of drones. A ban on investment in the mining industry and freezing the accounts of two Russian banks were also thought to have been on the agenda.

On the eve of the meeting, Josep Borrell spoke about disagreements between EU member states over the content of the sanctions package, as reported by kommersant.ru.

Today, we showed EU capacity to deliver:
– increase #EPF ceiling by €2bn for 2023
– adopting more sanctions against #Iran for human rights violations
– steps to defuse tensions in north of Kosovo
– establish CSDP mission for Niger
– deploy team to Amenia to assess EU engagement. pic.twitter.com/vg3zJFw0t1

— Josep Borrell Fontelles (@JosepBorrellF) December 12, 2022

___________________________________________________________

Thank you for taking the time to read this article. Do remember to come back and check The Euro Weekly News website for all your up-to-date local and international news stories and remember, you can also follow us on Facebook and Instagram.