EU Looking At New Russia Sanctions Proposals Amid Trump Call For Halt In Oil Purchases

The European Commission will present a new sanctions package proposal on Russia to the club's 27 member states early next week to further ratchet up pressure on the Kremlin, including measures aimed at curtailing Russian oil, which US President Donald Trump has called on Europe to stop purchasing.

Measures against Russia over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine will also target more banks, the Kremlin's so-called shadow fleet -- transport for Moscow to skirt sanctions -- third-country firms, and the blacklisting of a number of individuals, especially those deemed responsible for the abduction of Ukrainian children.

The thing to look out for, according to analysts and diplomats, is whether Brussels will manage to limit Russian tourist visas and prevent Russian diplomats from moving around inside the union.

The EU is looking to synchronize measures with the United States after EU sanctions envoy David O'Sullivan last week went to Washington to coordinate measures against the Kremlin after Trump said he had run out of patience with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Several EU officials with knowledge of the proposal note that the main scope of the new sanctions proposals offers a continuation of what the bloc already served up in previous rounds of measures. This means targeting more Russian banks, including smaller regional banks, by cutting them out from the international banking messaging system SWIFT.

The sanctions package will also hit Moscow's ability to use crypto currencies and ban more vessels believed to belong to Russia's shadow fleet from being serviced in any way in Europe. The current list includes 444 boats, but the bloc believes the Kremlin is using at least double that amount to transport its sanctioned oil products worldwide.

Stemming The Flow Of Russian Oil

There might also be attempts to target Russian oil giant Lukoil, even though some member states -- notably Slovakia and Hungary, who still rely on Russian oil imports -- will likely veto that.

The EU has set a goal of ridding itself of Russian energy imports by 2027 using EU internal market rules, meaning a qualified majority of member states is sufficient to endorse that legislation as supposed to the unanimity used for regular sanctions laws.

Over the weekend, Trump said he is willing to impose sanctions on Russia but that Europe has to act in tandem by halting its oil purchases.

"Europe is buying oil from Russia. I don't want them to buy oil," Trump told reporters on September 14. "The sanctions...that they're putting on are not tough enough, and I'm willing to do sanctions, but they're going to have to toughen up their sanctions commensurate with what I'm doing."

Other potential energy sanctions include slapping restrictive measures on refineries responsible for exporting Russian oil to the EU as well as third-country trading companies involved in its trade.

The EU won't, however, heed Trump's call to slap 100 percent tariffs on India and China for buying Russian oil. Brussels is not yet ready to sanction third countries for aiding Moscow in its war effort in Ukraine but companies from those nations could be targeted.

It remains to be seen if there is a Belarus component in this sanctions package. In previous rounds, the bloc has imposed similar measures on Moscow and Minsk, but with the United States now lifting some of its sanctions on Belarus in exchange for the release of several hundreds of political prisoners it remains up to negotiations among EU member states how they will approach the Lukashenko regime.

It requires unanimity to lift sanctions, and both Poland and Lithuania have indicated they won't consider any loosening of restrictive measures against Minsk yet.

One other interesting proposal, first floated by the Czech Republic over a year ago, is to limit the movement of Russian diplomats inside the EU. This means their movement would be limited to the state to which they are accredited and they'd need special authorization to travel elsewhere.

In practice, this is quite difficult to implement due to the lack of border controls inside the EU's Schengen Zone, of which most member states are a part. The idea, therefore, is that the person would be declared persona non grata and expelled if he or she is caught traveling outside the state of diplomatic accreditation.

Restricting Tourist Visas

Then there is the possibility of how far the bloc will go when it comes to tourist visas for Russian citizens.

There is a push by some to issue a complete ban, a measure that would need a qualified majority of 55 percent of member states representing 65 percent of the population.

This comes after several countries in the bloc noted a considerable uptick in Russian tourists visiting during the summer months. In many ways this could pit more hawkish EU member states such as the Baltics, Nordics, and Poland against southern member states that rely to a larger degree on tourism.

Eventually it could just result in a general recommendation from the European Commission to try to limit member states to issue tourist visas.

The EU suspended its visa facilitation agreement with Russia shortly after the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and issued guidelines to member states on how to deal with Russian visa requests.

Those recommendations noted that "Russian visa applicants traveling for essential purposes, including notably family members of EU citizens, dissidents, independent journalists, civil society representatives, and human rights defenders should have the possibility to access the EU."

It also recommended that "As far as Russian citizens traveling for tourism are concerned, having a very strict approach is justified as it is more difficult to assess the justification for the journey, as compared to other purposes (business trip, family visits or medical appointment)."

It could very well be that the bloc agrees to tighten that up even further if there isn't agreement on a total tourist visa ban.