Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Politico: Greece Joins Hungary in Pushing Back EU Sanctions Package against Russia


Sun 28 May 2023 | 06:09 AM
Taarek Refaat

The European edition of Politico reported that Greece has joined Hungary in bushing back EU's 11th sanctions package against Russia.

This package, according to the European Commission, includes imposing restrictions on companies from third countries that do not respond to the embargo measures imposed by the European Union, and achieve an increased trade volume with Russia.

The newspaper reported, quoting its diplomatic sources in Brussels, that the two countries are asking Kiev to remove their companies from the Ukrainian sanctions list, claiming that these companies support Russia.

Until Kiev meets these requirements, Athens and Budapest intend to suspend the 11th package of sanctions.

The newspaper indicates that the authors of Package 11 of the sanctions, in the European Union Commission for Foreign Affairs led by Joseph Borrell, received a request from Athens and Budapest to find a solution to this problem.

Earlier, European media reported that the first version of the 11th package of sanctions against Russia was supposed to include restrictions on Chinese companies, which do not recognize the right of the European Union to impose unilateral restrictions without a UN Security Council resolution, and ignore Brussels' demands to limit Trade with Russia.

Officially, the EU Commission for Foreign Affairs has not confirmed this information, only acknowledging that package 11 of the sanctions should include tight control measures over the application of EU restrictions.

If the news about the EU's readiness to apply extraterritorial sanctions against third-country companies is true, Budapest and Athens' fears that their companies on the Ukrainian blacklist may run into justifiable trouble with Brussels this time around.