BRUSSELS - Next week EU foreign ministers will think over further sanctions on separatists acting in the east of Ukraine.
“Member states are invited to offer their views on whether we should decide additional [sanction] listings of separatists [in Ukraine’s Donbas] and make the appropriate tasking to lower-level officials,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a letter to foreign ministers obtained by Bloomberg News.
Mogherini said a Nov. 17 meeting of EU foreign ministers will consider the blacklisting, while putting off a discussion of tougher economic measures until next month’s summit of leaders.
According to Bloomberg, now the Russia’s stepped-up support for the rebellion in eastern Ukraine comes with EU states divided into three camps. Britain and Poland are leading the push for tighter curbs, with Hungary, Slovakia, Greece and Cyprus in a group of opponents. Countries like Belgium, Ireland, Denmark and Austria are in the middle.
Even that proposal on additional names in the blacklist is in dispute, the agency quotes European official on condition of anonymity.
“Some governments prefer no new list at all over a new list with only Ukrainian names, since that would play into Russia’s assertions that it isn’t involved in the infiltration of Ukraine,” the European official told Bloomberg.
Expanding the blacklist could backfire, Mogherini said. “The main separatist leaders are already listed and the targeted separatists could be at some point agents in the implementation of the peace plan,” she said in the letter.
Anyway, an “eventual discussion” of economic restrictions against Russia and its supporters in Ukraine’s east is for EU heads of government, Mogherini said in her letter.
Sanctions require unanimity among the 28 governments, reducing the prospects of new decisions on Monday at the first foreign ministers’ meeting chaired by Mogherini.
Persons added to the blacklist are subjects to a travel ban and an asset freeze
