The Foreign Minister said on Monday that he was awaiting new EU sanctions against Russia approved at a European summit in late June, acknowledging that 27 of them would consider a list of companies subject to sanctions submitted by Kiev.
“We are working on it. Naturally, this is a negotiation process that is ongoing and therefore it is always difficult to predict, but we hope so,” said Joao Gomes Cravinho, answering the question whether the 11th meeting of the European Union ( EU ) a package of sanctions against Russia will be ready for approval by European leaders at the end of the June summit.
Speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels at the conclusion of the meeting of EU diplomats, the official pointed out that “there are many detailed issues that are under discussion and that have not yet crystallized enough”, namely issues related to identifying “the best mechanisms to avoid avoiding sanctions.”
Answering the question about the readiness of the EU to impose sanctions against companies from third countries that support Russia in the war in Ukraine, namely those that appear on the list submitted by Kiev, Joao Gomes Cravinho noted that “there was a discussion around this topic, back to the analysis ” next time.
However, “this is a list submitted to the EU by Ukrainians,” so the public bloc “will soon see whether this list can be absorbed as a whole, whether some companies are justified in what they are doing,” the head of Portuguese diplomacy stressed.