EU Energy Commissioner says no coordination on new US sanctions

BRUSSELS, Jun 23 (PRIME) -- The U.S. has not coordinated introduction of new anti-Russian sanctions with the E.U., European Commission’s Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic told PRIME on Friday.

“There are proposals of tougher U.S. sanctions against Russia…The possible new sanctions have not been coordinated with us,” he said.

Brussels believes the possible new measures should be “coordinated between international partners to ensure their impact internationally, and to maintain unity among partners on the sanctions,” he added.

The U.S. and E.U. should negotiate the issue as it covers a “sensitive matter.”

“We are telling our American partners that it is such a sensitive matter, so it should be discussed with us. We know from the past, that on this one there is a clear preference to have a harmonized approach,” he said, adding that the sanctions should be discussed and “harmonized” with the E.U. before coming into force as they concern the Nord Stream-2 natural gas pipeline.

The E.U. maintained permanent cooperation with the United States over the issue of introduction of E.U. economic sanctions against Russia, he said. “Sanctions only have an impact if there is no differentiated approaches,” the official added.

When asked whether the European Commission was preparing new sanctions against Russia, Sefcovic said “no”.

On June 15, the U.S. senate voted for a bill that introduces new sanctions against Russia. The sanctions include a cut of the term of financing for sanctioned Russian banks to 14 days and to sanctioned Russian oil and gas companies to 30 days. It also prohibits companies to invest more than $1 million in a single payment or more than $5 million during the course of a year in construction of Russian export pipelines, as well as provision of goods, services, technologies and informational support for the construction.

If approved by the House of Representatives, the bill would be submitted for signing to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

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