The European Union has begun weighing a move away from sweeping sanctions packages against Russia in favour of smaller and more frequent measures, Irish foreign minister Helen McEntee has said.
McEntee told Euractiv that one option under consideration would see the bloc impose new restrictions in response to each attack on civilians in Ukraine.
Ireland took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1 and has chaired negotiations on the bloc’s latest round of measures.
Irish officials brokered a compromise on July 23 on the 21st package since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ending a stand-off with Greece that had held up agreement for more than a week.
Athens had blocked a proposed ban on European operators shipping Russian liquefied natural gas to countries outside the bloc, arguing the measure would hand business to foreign competitors and damage Europe’s maritime sector.
Greek companies will be allowed to keep transporting the fuel under contracts signed before February 2022, with the exemption reviewed each year. Extensions to those contracts and new ones remain prohibited.
Greece has faced criticism for years over the role of its shipping industry in moving Russian crude.
Other governments won concessions of their own. Bulgaria kept Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, off the list of designated individuals, EU diplomats said.
Proposals from the European Commission on visa restrictions for Russian nationals and on fish imports were diluted or dropped altogether during the talks.
What survived still ran to 94 Russian financial institutions, including the Moscow stock exchange, alongside a freeze on a scheduled adjustment to the oil price cap that Brussels feared would have lifted Moscow’s earnings.
McEntee welcomed the outcome, saying the package “further targets Russia’s revenue streams, impedes its shadow fleet”.
The bruising negotiation has pushed diplomats to reconsider how the bloc applies pressure. Sanctions require unanimity among the 27 member states and must be rolled over every six months, handing any single capital leverage over the entire regime.
Officials were examining ways to push through more targeted financial designations at greater speed, leaving governments fewer openings to trade their approval for national carve-outs, according to the Financial Times.
Hungary, for years the most persistent brake on sanctions renewals, took no part in the latest confrontation.
Ireland holds the presidency until December 31.
