The European Commission's "maintenance and alignment" package puts the bloc's sanctions regime closer to that of the U.S. and U.K., with stronger reporting requirements for financial institutions. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov / AFP)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the package, which includes a ban on imported Russian gold and adds six months to the current sanctions, putting them up for review at the end of January 2023.
"We are proposing today to tighten our hard-hitting EU sanctions against the Kremlin, enforce them more effectively and extend them until January 2023," von der Leyen said. "Moscow must continue to pay a high price for its aggression."
The measures would clarify that the sanctions do not target agricultural trade between non-EU countries and Russia, and more clearly define the exact scope of the financial and economic sanctions.
The package will now be debated by the EU council's member states before it is adopted.
"Today's package reflects our coordinated approach with international partners including the G7," said Josep Borrell, EU high representative for foreign affairs. "I will also present proposals to Council for the listing of more individuals and entities, with their assets frozen and ability to travel curtailed."
The bloc adopted its sixth tranche of sanctions against Russia in May, putting a ban on imported Russian oil and banning Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, from the SWIFT cross-border loan messaging system.
The EU's sanctions against Russia for the 2014 annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol were later extended until June 2023, which targeted exports of specific goods to Crimean companies and the Crimean operations of strategic industries, such as oil, gas and mining.
The sanctions have led to billions of euros of Russian assets being frozen, with Luxembourg alone freezing €4.2 billion ($4.2 billion) of sanctioned Russian assets by June.
The sanctions have led Switzerland's financial watchdog to put Sberbank's Swiss arm into special measures out of fear the EU sanctions regime would force it into collapse, only lifting the measures to allow it to settle its debts with creditors who have not been sanctioned.
--Additional reporting by Joel Poultney. Editing by Alyssa Miller.
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