EU SANCTIONS: CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER The latest twist to the EU sanctions saga reinforces the feeling that there is growing conflict on this issue. Let us first of all recall the sequence of events: 1. On Friday at the NATO summit we were all given the impression that the sanctions were a done deal despite concerns earlier expressed by the Slovaks, the Czechs and the Hungarians and that they were going to be announced on Monday. 2. On Monday we were told that the EU would wait until Wednesday to see whether the ceasefire was holding or not. This was supposedly done on the insistence of Finland. However van Rompuy said that since the sanctions had already been agreed in principle they would be imposed on Wednesday unless all 28 member states decided otherwise. 3. On Wednesday the decision was however put off again with the number of countries now openly objecting supposedly increasing to four and with several other countries claiming to have doubts. 4. The very latest reports are that the sanctions are going to be announced on Friday despite the fact that the ceasefire (which the EU supports) is actually holding. Apparently the sanctions will forbid companies from EU states from engaging in Arctic drilling in Russias waters. There may also be further restrictions on borrowings by Russian state companies in European capital markets. What is going on? As I said the delay on Wednesday is not consistent with what van Rompuy said on Monday. Obviously I dont know what is going on but I am going to make an educated guess. I suspect that the agreement in principle that van Rompuy was talking about on Monday is in reality far more qualified than he said if it exists at all. However it is clear that a group of EU states plus the European Commission are determined to railroad the sanctions through regardless of the concerns or even objections of some of EU states. The idea presumably is to announce them on Friday as if everybody is signed up to them on the assumption that none of the objectors has the courage to veto them when they come up for approval at the next Council of Ministers meeting.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:45:58 +0000
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