EU foreign ministers have not yet been able to agree on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia

On December 12, the EU states failed to agree on the ninth package of anti-Russian sanctions at the level of foreign ministers. The draft restrictions were returned for consideration by the permanent representatives of the EU countries in Brussels, as reported by the agenda of the meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU published on December 12. According to the document, the meeting of permanent representatives will take place after the meeting of the EU foreign ministers, at 20:00 Moscow time.

The meeting of Foreign Ministry leaders is already the second failed attempt to agree on another package of sanctions against Russia. Earlier on December 10, the ambassadors of the EU countries already failed, trying to reach agreements on this issue. The reason for this was the numerous exceptions that proposed the introduction of European states. As a result, the discussion was postponed to December 12.

Representatives of the EU states hoped to agree on and adopt new sanctions before the meeting of foreign ministers, but they did not succeed either. Commenting on the incident, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, said: “We are still in the process of [согласования] and not finished yet. According to him, there are still a number of issues on the agenda that need to be discussed.

Earlier, Politico reported that the ninth package of the EU will introduce restrictions against 169 organizations supplying the Russian military-industrial complex. It was also planned to impose sanctions against several government agencies, three banks and TV channels, ban the supply of components for unmanned aerial vehicles, and expand the list of sanctioned individuals.

The European Union no longer understands what other restrictions can be introduced against Russia, said Alexander Kamkin, senior researcher at IMEMO RAS. The collective consensus on anti-Russian sanctions is apparently ending, and more and more contradictions are emerging between the EU countries. A vivid example of this is Hungary, which won the right to import Russian oil, bypassing the embargo imposed by Brussels. The logical limit of the sanctions, the expert adds, has been exhausted, so the difficulties in coordinating the positions of different EU states are not at all surprising.