By Gabriela Baczynska
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Poland this month presented a proposal for a new set of sanctions against Russia for waging war against Ukraine, according to a document seen by Reuters on Tuesday, including a ban on pipeline oil and diamond imports.
The written proposal, which a diplomatic source said was delivered to the EU executive European Commission, marks an opening salvo in what is bound to be long and complex negotiations among the bloc’s 27 countries.
All must agree to impose new sanctions. The bloc has already put in place ten rounds of punitive steps against Russia since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022.
A senior EU official on Monday declined to comment on the possible timing for any new sanctions.
The EU’s chief executive, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, has said previously an 11th package would focus on combating circumvention of existing restrictions, in particular for spare parts and equipment that Russia deploys on the battlefield against Ukraine.
Warsaw’s proposal would stop Russian oil imports via the northern leg of the Druzhba pipeline going to Germany. It would end imports of Russian diamonds and natural gas, including LNG, and curb nuclear energy cooperation.
Germany and Lithuania are also for nuclear energy sanctions with leniency for those like Hungary and France who trade with Russia.
Hungary, which last week said it had agreed to modify its contract with Russia’s Rosatom for the expansion of the Paks nuclear plant, has so far firmly opposed any sanctions on Russian nuclear energy.
Belgium, home to the world’s biggest diamond trading hub Antwerp, has successfully lobbied against barring Russian imports so far.
Poland casts itself as a leading Russia hawk in the EU and an ardent supporter of Kyiv. But, worried about upsetting farmers ahead of a national election this year, Warsaw this week dealt a blow to Ukraine by banning its grain imports.
Hungary and Slovakia joined the ban, a matter envoys of all the 27 EU members are to discuss in the bloc’s hub Brussels on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Gabriela Baczynska; Editing by Christina Fincher)
