Herman Van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, called on the leaders on the EU countries to reject imposing gas sanctions against Russia. “The measures in the field of sensitive technologies will only affect the oil sector in view of the need to preserve EU energy security,” the anonymous source said citing the official letter by Van Rompuy. In addition, the policymaker suggests that the EU 28 member states should delegate the power to bring in new sanctions to their EU ambassadors avoiding the need for an emergency summit. The document mentions a ban on EU exports of sensitive technologies to three target areas: deep-sea drilling, Arctic exploration, and shale oil extraction. This also threatens to halt defense orders. Besides, the new sanctions will limit access of Russian banks with over 50% state ownership to the long- and medium-term capital markets, making it more difficult for Russian companies to raise fresh funding. However, in the technology sector, sanctions will apply to the oil sector but not gas, of which Russia supplies about a third of the EU’s needs, Van Rompuy said, highlighting the need to guarantee the bloc’s energy security. It should be noted that the new package of the sanctions against Russian banks were set out by the U.S. and EU to put pressure on the key sectors of Russia’s economy. However, experts think the immediate impact is likely to be moderate. Indeed, the American blacklist does not include the Russia’s largest bank. Likewise, the EU has left a loophole for most Russian banks. The sanctions were introduced into a range of Russian companies in the banking, energetic, and manufacturing sectors as punitive measures for Russia’s destabilizing role in Ukraine’s conflict. According to analysts, blocking access to Western capital markets will cut lenders funding costs, reduce profits, and probably, hamper further loans.
