The European Union imposes new sanctions on Russia. Tajani: “Italy’s victory is to protect companies”

The European Union Council adopted the fourteenth package of sanctions against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine. The Council explained that these measures are designed to target high-value sectors of the Russian economy, such as energy, finance and trade, and make it increasingly difficult to evade EU sanctions. In detail, today’s package includes restrictive measures against 116 other individuals and entities responsible for actions that undermine or threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence. Furthermore, in order to ensure that EU facilities are not used to transport Russian LNG to third countries, and thus reduce the significant revenues that Russia earns from the sale and transportation of LNG, the EU will ban Russian LNG refilling services on EU territory for the purposes of Shipping operations to third countries. This covers both ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore transfers, as well as reloading operations, and does not affect imports but only re-exports to third countries via the EU. Furthermore, the EU will ban new investments, as well as the supply of goods, technologies and services to complement LNG projects under construction, such as Arctic LNG 2 and Murmansk LNG. Restrictions have been imposed on the import of Russian LNG via EU terminals not connected to the natural gas system.

After the announcement came the position of Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani: “Today the sanctions package takes a very important decision on the issue of companies operating in Russia. We have two cases, Ariston and UniCredit. Today the principle passes that there can be compensation. The legal basis has passed, and it is an important victory for Italy.” “We have fought for this, we have 200 companies operating in Russia in compliance with the sanctions, we have a duty to protect them and then – commented the leader of Forza Italia – we will see where the money will be found.”