“This is one of the darkest hours in Europe since the Second World War,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell struck a dramatic note shortly after the feared news had arrived on Thursday morning: war is on again in Europe. Hard to imagine until the day before yesterday when Russian rockets and bombs hit Ukraine on Friday.
The EU has now responded to this aggression with an extensive package of sanctions. “It was ‘the toughest sanctions package’ that the EU has ever decided on,” said Borrell. The punitive measures affect, among other things, the areas of energy, finance and transport.
The EU heads of government, including Chancellor Karl Nehammer, arrived in a hurry on Thursday evening for a special summit in Brussels. The goal: agreement on the next wave of sanctions to force Russia to abandon its course of war. The idea was now to cut the access of important Russian banks to the European financial markets. “There will be severe restrictions for the financial sector in the direction of the EU, in the direction of the West,” said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer shortly before the special summit.
Exclusion from Swift is not an issue for the time being
According to Nehammer, Russia’s exclusion from the Swift global payment system was “not an issue” for the time being. The EU is also specifically targeting the Russian energy sector with its sanctions, said an EU official. Furthermore, important areas of the Russian economy are to be denied access to key technologies and markets in the future. An export ban on chips and high technology to Russia is introduced.
The main purpose of the sanctions against the transport sector is to cut off the supply of spare parts and other technology to the Russian aviation industry. It was said that this could have a huge impact with relatively little effort. Russia’s neighbor and ally, Belarus, must also reckon with further sanctions. The regime in Minsk is militarily supporting the Russian invasion of its neighbors.