The European Union will target Russian gold exports in an upgrade of the bloc's sanctions against Moscow, due to be announced on Friday.
The EU has so far approved six packages of sanctions against Russia. The most recent one, passed in June, imposed a ban on most Russian oil imports.
The EU will look into ways of sanctioning gold, which is an important commodity for exports from Russia, Maroš Šefčovič, deputy head of the European Commission, said in Prague.
#UPDATE The European Union will target Russian gold exports in its next sanction package and seek to "close exit routes" for those bypassing its earlier packages, said Maros Sefcovic, deputy head of the European Commission. pic.twitter.com/gLuykcA6RM
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) July 15, 2022
The move follows a ban on gold exports from Russia agreed by the world's leading industrialised nations at a G7 meeting at the end of June.
Šefčovič said the European Commission would announce the update on Friday and member states would discuss it next week.
"As soon as we reach an agreement at the level of member states, we will publish it," he said ahead of an informal meeting of European affairs ministers held by the Czech presidency of the 27-nation bloc.
"We want to harmonise our sanction regime with the measures recently adopted by the G7," Šefčovič said, adding the EU was constantly monitoring the implementation and effect of its sanctions.
"We also continuously update the lists of people targeted by the sanctions," he said.
New sanctions
The EU seeks to "tighten the sanctions to help end the war as soon as possible and to make the economic price paid by the Russian Federation for its aggression as high as possible," Šefčovič added.
On the eve of the Prague meeting, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna urged the EU to adopt new sanctions against Russia.
Thanked Minister @MikulasBek for inviting me to the meeting of 🇪🇺 Ministers for European Affairs as well as putting Ukraine into the focus of #EU2022CZ
— Olga Stefanishyna (@StefanishynaO) July 15, 2022
Will work together to strengthen 🇺🇦🇪🇺coordination on rebuilding& enlargement. Expect a strong 🇪🇺position on sanctioning russia pic.twitter.com/f7cdvts95U
"Nothing makes Russia so far feel accountable for (its) crimes," she told reporters.
"We hope the next, seventh package of sanctions will have a strong restrictive potential and will be taken without further delay and as soon as possible," said Stefanishyna.
Šefčovič added the EU would also seek to "close all exit routes for those wanting to bypass the sanctions" in the proposed update.
"It is of course a very complex mechanism, so we need to not only set up but also check, monitor and close the places that would create platforms for an exit in some way," he said.
He waved aside any thoughts of fatigue among EU members helping Ukraine, which Russia invaded on 24 February.
"I have never seen so strongly demonstrated unity and effort from all member states to look for all possible reserves, whether we talk about financial aid or arms supplies," Šefčovič said.
"Even though it's really difficult, we will continue because it's the Ukrainians fighting for their freedom who are in the most difficult situation," he added.
(With AFP)
