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The EU is to extend sanctions on Russia-occupied Crimea, amid a history of patchy implementation.
EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels on Wednesday (9 June) are expected to agree a year-long extension without much ado, three EU diplomats told EUobserver.
Even Hungary, which has close ties to Moscow and a history of EU vetoes, is not expected to stand in the way, the diplomats said.
An upcoming meeting of finance ministers will sign the renewed sanctions into law later this month.
These ban EU nationals or firms from owning assets or doing business in the Ukrainian peninsula and were put in place after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea in 2014.
“They’ve had a strong effect on the region – it’s not a good environment for doing business,” an EU diplomat said.
“[Russian president Vladimir] Putin promised people in Crimea a bright future, but he has not been able to deliver on those promises in economic terms,” the diplomat added.
Meanwhile, the past seven years have seen several cases of EU sanctions violations come to light.
A Greek billionaire, Ivan Savvidi, is involved in Crimea food supply and funds pro-Russian propaganda events there, EUobserver reported in May.
Danish engineering firm Grundfos and German one Siemens have supplied water pumps to Crimea, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle revealed also last month.
Germany’s top lender, Deutsche Bank, was caught out facilitating illicit financial transactions to Crimea in 2020.
Cyprus hosts several off-shore firms involved in Crimea’s transport, wine, and hotel industries, the RFE/RFL news agency revealed in an investigation in 2019.
Meanwhile, some EU firms have used sanctions loopholes on “cultural” projects to do business in the frozen conflict-zone, with Austrian architectural firm Coop Himmelb(l)au, for instance, currently building a lavish opera house in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.
When asked if it was confident the sanctions were being properly enforced, the EU foreign service said: “Implementation of the sanctions is a duty of each member state”.
The European Commission, which has a sanctions compliance unit, declined to comment.
The EU has also blacklisted 177 Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians and 48 entities for harming Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
These sanctions come up for renewal every six months, with the next roll-over due in September.
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