Yesterday, the European Union gave a further twist to its punitive measures against Russia in response to the war in Ukraine with the approval of the sixth round of sanctions, the most complicated and painful of all those adopted so far for all the parties involved. and, moreover, at a time of growing economic stress.
About a hundred days after the beginning of the conflict, European leaders gave the green light to a new package of measures with which it intends to strangle the Kremlin's finances and "stop the Russian war machine." The most relevant and delicate measure is the agreement for a partial and progressive embargo on Russian oil, which by the end of the year will affect 90% of the current supply.
The decision comes after vetoing coal from Russia, but it will be much more complicated to apply than this one, since a quarter of the EU's crude oil imports come from this country and the search for alternative suppliers has sent energy prices skyrocketing. record levels.
Hours after the political agreement of the European Council was announced, Eurostat, the community statistical office, revealed that inflation in the EU reached a record figure of 8.1% in April. Demonstrating European solidarity with Ukraine "involves some sacrifices" but "the cost would be even greater if we let Putin continue with his imperialist whims in Eastern Europe", argued the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, who stressed that Ukraine is fighting not only for its territorial integrity but for the defense of the values that define the EU.
Although the leaders of the Baltic countries, who feel the Russian threat very close, advocate keeping up the pressure and starting to talk about an embargo on Russian gas ("For us it's just money, the Ukrainians are risking their lives," he defended the Latvian Prime Minister, Krisjanis Karins) others did not hide the vertigo produced by thinking of a measure of such caliber, in view of the fact that Moscow holds the key to 40% of the current supply of the EU.
“We are entering a very difficult phase. Let's stop for a moment and see what effect it has," proposed Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo, in line with the statements of his Austrian colleague, Karl Nehammer, who considered an embargo on Russian gas "unacceptable." One way or another, the way forward is to do without Russian energy, defended German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who insisted on his government's determination to break with Russia's energy dependency and recalled that it has accelerated plans to build infrastructure that allow them to diversify their gas supply sources. "Other neighboring countries will also be able to benefit," he assured.
Beyond the price increases in Europe, serious food tensions are brewing in other parts of the planet that, as the Ukrainian president himself, Volodymyr Zelensky, warned European leaders by videoconference the night before last, may end up producing migratory movements. Also electronically, the president of the African Union, the Senegalese Macky Sall, warned the EU yesterday of the risk of severe famines and called on the EU to get involved in finding solutions to alleviate the shortage of cereals caused by the war. The leaders of France and Germany, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, revealed that they have proposed to Putin to negotiate a resolution within the framework of the United Nations to reopen the port of Odessa.
The European sanctions require the unanimity of the Twenty-seven to be approved and Hungary had been blocking the plan for several weeks and exposing its author and theoretician responsible for the negotiation, the president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In the end, for the sake of the agreement, the heads of state and government gave in to part of the demands of the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orbán, and agreed to leave out of the agreement the oil pipeline that feeds landlocked countries such as Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with the commitment that if there are problems with the pipeline they will be able to import it by other means. “Hungarian families can sleep soundly,” Orbán said in a Facebook video in which he boasts of having “defeated” Brussels.
All in all, the measure already immediately covers two-thirds of Russian exports from the EU. And when Germany and Poland stop buying oil from Moscow at the end of the year, only 10% of the total will be left out. "It seems to me a reasonable compromise," said Josep Borrell, the EU's High Representative for Foreign Policy. Although Russia can try to sell that crude to other buyers, the measure will hurt it because the EU is its main client and it will have to lower prices. In addition, it is studying the application of a measure that, in its day, contributed to strangling Iranian oil exports: the prohibition of European companies from ensuring the transport of Russian crude by sea.
In addition, the Twenty-seven agreed to expel three more banks from the Swift payment platform, including Sberbank, the country's largest, and to expand the list of people sanctioned by the EU to include, among other Kremlin allies, the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Cyril. Putin, his daughters and hundreds of Russian politicians and oligarchs have seen their assets frozen in the EU and have been denied access to its territory.
The invasion of Ukraine has given a brutal turnaround to the security landscape in the EU, which yesterday gave the green light to several proposals with which to urgently rearm and strengthen its defense industry. “We are all convinced that we should not only invest more but better through measures such as joint purchases”, celebrated the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. “Increasing defense spending each on their own would be wasteful. It would worsen the duplication problem that we already have and it would not solve the shortcomings”, insisted Borrell.
Parallel to the demands for NATO membership presented by Sweden and Finland, two traditionally neutral countries, Denmark will hold a referendum today to decide whether to participate in European defense policy, in which it has not participated by its own decision since its launch with the approval of the Maastricht treaty. Thirty years later, the calculation of the main political forces of the Nordic country, which is indeed a member of NATO, has changed and they propose that citizens vote in favor of fully joining this new chapter of European integration. Polls indicate that their response will be positive.
