Ambassadors from the 28 European Union countries will meet on Tuesday to assess the implementation of a peace plan in Ukraine and consider cancelling sanctions against Russia, EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying on Monday.
The Committee of EU permanent representatives gathers on Tuesday to assess the implementation of an agreement on the ceasefire and a peace plan in Ukraine, she said. Following this assessment, recommendations may be given to the European Commission and the EU Foreign Policy Service to prepare proposals on reviewing the sanctions against Russia.
Therefore, the EU discussions on modifying the regime of sanctions against Russia will start only in October. Moreover, a unanimous support of all the 28 EU member states will be required to take any decisions on easing the regime of sanctions against Russia, the EU Foreign Policy Service earlier said.
The West started to impose sanctions on Russia in March 2014 over the events in Ukraine. First, an early EU summit stalled the talks on a visa-free regime and a new base agreement on Russia-EU cooperation. Further on, the sanctions were grouped into three categories — personal, corporate and sectoral.
By the beginning of September, some 420 Russian individuals and 143 companies had been put on the sanction lists of the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Switzerland and Norway.
The sectoral sanctions imposed for a term of one year include an embargo on the supply of arms to Russia and on importats of Russian weapons and related materials, a ban on the delivery of dual-purpose products and technologies to Russia, as well as innovative technologies for Russia’s oil extracting industry.
In mid-September, the European Union published new sanctions against Russia in its official journal.
The fresh sanctions reduce the period of lending for state-run Russian banks Sberbank, VTB, VEB, Gazprombank and Russian Agricultural Bank from 90 to 30 days.
