© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks throughout a information convention in Beijing, China October 14, 2023. REUTERS/Xiaoyu Yin/File Photo
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union officers are finalising the “last details” of a proposed twelfth bundle of sanctions on Russia that can embrace a diamond ban, EU international coverage chief Josep Borrell stated on Monday.
Borrell stated the European Commission, the EU govt, may approve the proposed bundle on Wednesday. It would then go to the Council of the EU, comprising the bloc’s 27 member international locations, for dialogue and approval.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already utilized 11 packages of sanctions towards Moscow to decrease the Kremlin’s skill to finance the warfare. The measures span throughout sectors and embrace some 1,800 people and entities.
“This twelfth package will include … new export bans, among them … diamonds, actions to tighten the oil price cap, in order to decrease the revenue that Russia is getting from selling its oil – not to us but to others – (and) fighting against circumvention,” Borrell advised reporters after a gathering of EU international ministers.
EU diplomats advised Reuters final week stated the 27-nation bloc had been ready for a G7 inexperienced mild to maneuver forward with the diamond ban. An EU official stated the present timing for a European Commission proposal for the bundle, that might then be debated by the EU’s 27 governments, was “early next week”.
“We are finalising the last details of this package,” Borrell stated.
