EU Agree on 8th Sanctions Package

The EU has backed a new package of sanctions which includes support for a price cap on oil sales to third countries.

• “We have approved a new package of sanctions,” Andrzej Sados, the Polish ambassador to the EU said. “It includes a price cap on Russian oil shipped to third countries and mechanisms to avoid circumvention of sanctions.”
• “I welcome the Member States’ agreement today on the 8th sanctions package. We have moved quickly and decisively. We will never accept Putin’s sham referenda nor any kind of annexation in Ukraine. We are determined to continue making the Kremlin pay.” Ursula von der Leyen, President of the EU Commission said on twitter.
• The sanctions will prohibit maritime transport of Russian oil to third countries above an oil price cap. The measures provide for the legal basis of the price cap, which was previously agreed by G7 countries. There is no decision yet on the actual price, or the price range, of the future cap, though the US has suggested this will come within weeks.
• The package would add a ban on shipping Russian oil to existing restrictions on services needed to transport it, but carve out an exemption for oil priced at or under a level set by a coalition of the Group of Seven and other countries, according to a draft of the proposal seen by news outlets.
• The EU will have to change its current legislation to support a price cap. In June, EU nations agreed to a full ban on insurance and financial services for seaborne oil, while shipping was spared from the restrictions. Most of those prohibitions are due to kick in Dec. 5 alongside a ban on EU purchases of Russian crude.
• Concessions are believed to have bee made for Malta, Greece and Cyprus, whose tanker fleets transport most Russian oil.