The day before, the European Union was unable to agree on the tenth package of sanctions against Russia due to the objections of Poland.
According to Politico, the talks will continue this morning and will overlap with official events marking the anniversary of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Diplomats say almost the entire package has been agreed, but Poland objects to proposed restrictions on synthetic rubber imports, which it says are not tough enough.
A number of countries have called for a total ban, but in an effort to reassure other countries that depend on these imports, the Commission has proposed a quota limit of 560 000 metric tonnes, one EU diplomat said. According to a Polish official, this is even more than current imports.
While acknowledging that the package is being delayed, Warsaw denies that this is a problem. "We do not block sanctions. We just want them to make sense," noted a Polish official on condition of anonymity.
The interlocutors of the publication also claim that the previous evening, the Commission continued negotiations with some EU countries in search of a compromise. According to four diplomats, there will be another meeting of ambassadors from the 27 EU member states on Friday morning to try to reach a deal.
- On February 15, the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen presented the official proposal for the tenth package of sanctions against Russia. The European Commission is proposing further export bans that will cost more than €11 billion and deprive the Russian economy of critical technologies and industrial products. We are talking about goods that Russia will not be able to get from other countries: electronics, special vehicles, car parts, spare parts for trucks and airplanes, goods for the construction sector that can be used by the Russian military.
- The publication Bloomberg wrote that the European Union is considering the possibility of imposing sanctions against the Russian National Welfare Fund. They also want to oblige banks to disclose more information about frozen Russian assets.
- On February 16, it became known that the ambassadors of the EU member states failed to approve the tenth package of sanctions against Russia at the first discussion. The controversy arose because of the European Commissionʼs proposal to ban the purchase of Russian rubber.