It is set to be discussed at the informal EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday in Wicklow, Ireland, according to three EU diplomats with direct knowledge of the discussions, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly about the private topic. According to one of the diplomats, 1,600 listings for sanctions are currently being reviewed, including 800 individuals and 800 companies from Russia. The sanctions are expected to be adopted in mid-October.
Another diplomat said that the use of frozen Russian state bank assets is once again under discussion, even though this is a longer-term process and will require attempts to persuade Belgium, which has long resisted the idea. By far the largest portion of Russian central bank reserves frozen in the EU is held by Brussels-based Euroclear. The Belgian financial firm is one of the most important central securities depositories and Bart De Wever’s government is wary of the prospect of Russian retaliation.
All three diplomats spoke of a significant expansion of the current sanctions against Russia. “The strategy is to pull out all the stops. We are deploying every possible sanctions regime,” the first EU diplomat said.
Nicholas Vinocur, Lennart Pfahler and Caroline Turzer contributed to this report.
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