Bloomberg: The European Union may miss the deadline for extending sanctions against Russia because of Orban

The European Union may miss the deadline for extending sanctions against Russia due to opposition from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Bloomberg writes about this.

Orban criticized the blocʼs sanctions regime, which is set to be renewed every six months and ends on January 31, 2025. He said that the 15 sanctions packages imposed are allegedly harming Europeʼs economy.

In December 2024, Orbán said he wanted to wait until US President Donald Trump was inaugurated

before deciding whether to extend sanctions against Russia. In his first days in office, Trump showed no signs of easing sanctions against Moscow. In fact, he said he would likely impose additional measures if Russia did not come to the negotiating table regarding the war in Ukraine.

The decision to extend the sanctions must be unanimously supported by all 27 EU member states. EU ambassadors are due to meet several times in the coming days to see if they can achieve this. Several unnamed diplomats said the bloc has no “Plan B” for extending the sanctions if Orban continues to block them.

If an agreement on extending the sanctions cannot be reached this week, the issue will be referred to the foreign ministers of the EU member states, who will meet in Brussels on January 27. One of the sources told Bloomberg that the EU still hopes to resolve the issue of extending the sanctions this week.

• The latest package of sanctions against Russia was adopted by the EU on December 16, 2024, targeting the Russian shadow fleet. Another 84 individuals and legal entities were also subject to sanctions: 54 people and 30 organizations.