No immediate sanctions on Russia and no
core sanctions against the inner circle of the Kremlin: the meeting of
the EU’s foreign ministers on sanctions against Russia, chaired by the High Representative
Catherine Ashton,took on Tuesday longer than announced, as an
agreement proved hard to find, given the opposing commercial interests
of thevarious EU members.
Before the meeting, Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier had already poured
cold water on expectations before the meeting, telling journalists that
diplomatic dialogue was not enough to pressure Moscow overUkraine.
EU leaders had agreed in principle on new sanctions at the 17 July
summit, but not on names and details. Even today, the ministers asked
the Commission, in the person of enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule,
to first inform the Council and also to have a list ofsupplementary
persons to be sanctioned submitted to Coreper (the ambassadors to
Brussels) by Thursday.
The chief of EU’s diplomacy Catherine Ashton held a short press
conference in the usual careful language: “It is crucial that separatist
groups allow access to the area of the crash. We need to see the crash
sitesecured. We in particular call on Russia to stop the flow of
weapons so that we achieve rapid de-escalation."
Under the pressure of countries like Britain, the EUshould decide
measures against Russia including in the field of defence, energy and
financial services. The principleswere again agreed today, but the
concrete decision was postponed until the Coreper meeting on Thursday,
or even to an extraordinary summit before the end of themonth.
French President François Hollande isstilldefending plans to deliver a
warship to Russia,despite calls for a European arms embargo against
Moscow over the fighting in Ukraine.
Hollande told reporters that the French-made warship deal wouldn't fall
under newsanctions because it was finalised in 2011. French officials
have also argued that the shipwould be delivered without any weapons.
Hollande said the first warship is nearly finished, adding, "The
Russianshave paid. We would have to reimburse 1.1 billion Euros" ($1.5
billion) if France were tocancel the deal.
Hollande said a decision on future warships as part of the deal would "depend on Russia'sattitude.”
Most capitals are loath to start an economic war with Russia, especially
in this period of economic incertitude and doubtful recovery.
EU is still at the “phase two" of the sanctions: asset and travel bans
on people and companies dealing with Ukraine. EU has stopped short of
targeting the Kremlin’s inner circle, like the US started doing. Berlin,
Paris, Madrid andRome are reticent to go over to “phase three”, which
would be targeting Russia’s core economic interests.
David Cameron has spoken publicly in favour of much tougher sanctions,
and he has criticised France for planning to deliver to Russia the two
sophisticated warships that were commissioned and paid for by Moscow
years ago. Atthe same time, Cameron himself is loath to jeopardise the
City and the huge flux of Russian money that flows through London.
Meanwhile, Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski says "the
Russia-Ukraine conflict is Europe's mostimportant security challenge
since the end of the Cold War."
Speaking at a meeting of NATO countries from Central and Eastern Europe,
he saidstrengthening the alliance's eastern flank is "fundamental."
The presidents of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, the Czech Republic,
Slovakia, Hungary,Bulgaria, and Romania met today in Warsaw to discuss
the fallout from the Ukraine crisisand Russia's annexation of Crimea in
March.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/more-russia-sanctions-no-eu-concrete-decision