On Thursday, the 15th of December, Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia – and Poland blocked the new package of anti-Russian sanctions proposed by the European Union. The reason is because western nations suggested making exports of animal feeds and fertilizers an exception, said Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Gabrielius Landsbergis.
He said inclusion of cases of exception could contribute to circumvention of sanctions.
«If such a large political gap is created to support all EU member states, I believe it could be used not only to resolve certain issues but also circumvent sanctions,» the minister told journalists.
He said Lithuania and Poland blocked the approval of the package of sanctions on Thursday, the 15th of December. The other Baltic States supported this position.
Landsbergis allowed that EU’s ninth package of sanctions will continue on the level of EU leaders.
Financial Times reported that Germany, France and Netherlands proposed including the aforementioned exception in new sanctions. Multiple other western European countries supported this initiative.
«We believe the included exceptions will actually reduce the impact of the ninth package of sanctions,» added the Lithuanian minister.
He refused the name the countries that supported this exception. He said «it may not be the final opinion».
According to the minister, initially exceptions were proposed for 1 500 Russian private persons and enterprises. Later, however, this list was reduced.
«Initially there was a list with 1 500 private persons and businesses. Now the list is narrowed down to several. Their private funds will be released if the supervising country establishes a link between this money and food safety. It is hard to say if oligarchs’ money has any ties to food safety, but we asked about this,» added Landsbergis.
Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė reminded that Russia continues efforts to make it look like EU sanctions are negatively impacting agricultural production in third world countries.
«Russian propaganda claims EU sanctions are to blame for the rising food prices, especially in third world countries, even though we all know none of the sanctions in place are aimed at agricultural production and they have nothing to to with it.
Certain oligarchs and businesses in the fertilizer business are applied with sanctions,» Šimonytė told journalists in Vilnius.
Western European member states are concerned the latest sanctions could slow trade of Russian animal feed and mineral fertilizers. This is why they suggested using European Commission’s explanation in certain cases, as it was with transit to Kaliningrad through Lithuania’s territory.
«We understand our European partners’ concerns about specific cases when problems could appear if bans refuse to allow money transfer or it transit service is refused, or something else. However, our government believes very specific cases can be resolved using explanation from the European Commission, like it was in Lithuania,» said Landsbergis.
According to Financial Times, the document that suggested exceptions received support from Spain, Belgium and Portugal.
The document mentions that freight is held at European sea ports for longer than necessary because businesses are worried about dealing with Russian companies the owners of which are under sanctions.
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