The EU will suspend Moscow's privileged trade and economic treatment, crack down on its use of cryptocurrency assets and ban exports of EU luxury goods to Russia as well as the import of Russian iron and steel goods, the head of the European Commission said on Friday.
The new measures amount to a fourth set of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, co-ordinated with the US and other G7 allies.
It comes as EU leaders met for a two-day summit in Versailles near the French capital as they sought to outline the next steps to tackle the crisis.
“Tomorrow, we will take a fourth package of measures to further isolate Russia and drain the resources it uses to finance this barbaric war,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said.
The 27-nation bloc has been considering how to become more independent in several strategic areas ever since the Covid-19 pandemic showed that a breakdown of global supply chains could leave the EU without access to pharmaceuticals or microchips.
The war in Ukraine only made that more clear, EU officials said, as Europe will now struggle to wean itself off Russian gas, oil, coal and raw materials and possibly find alternative suppliers of wheat.
“In the context of this crisis we are seeing how our food, our energy, our defence are all issues of sovereignty,” French President Emmanuel Macron told journalists after hosting the summit at Versailles.
“We want to be open to the world, we want to choose our partners but not depend on any,” he added.
Along with other western allies, such as the US, the bloc will revoke Russia's “most favoured nation” trade status.
This would open the door to the bloc banning or imposing punitive tariffs on Russian goods and putting Russia on par with North Korea and Iran.
As a first step, the EU will prohibit imports of iron and steel goods.
Ms van der Leyen said in a statement that Russia's membership rights in leading multilateral institutions, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, would also be suspended.
“Russia cannot grossly violate international law and at the same time expect to benefit from the privileges of being part of the international economic order,” Ms von der Leyen said.
G7 allies will seek next week to co-ordinate the targeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin's “cronies” and will strive to ensure Russia and its elites cannot use cryptoassets to circumvent sanctions.
The EU will specifically ban exports to Russia of luxury goods, designed to strike a blow against Russia's elites.
Finally, the bloc will ban new European investments in Russia's energy sector.
“This ban will cover all investments, technology transfers, financial services, etc, for energy exploration and production — and thus have a big impact on Putin,” Ms von der Leyen said.
EU goods imports from Russia totalled 145 billion euros ($158.7 billion) in 2019, EU statistics office Eurostat reported, of which 101 billion euros was for oil and gas.
