Brussels, 14/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 September, the Council of the EU extended by six months the application of the EU's restrictive measures on 149 people and 37 entities that have conducted actions against the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine. These measures - an assets freeze in the EU and a visa ban - are thus extended until 15 March 2016.
“The assessment of the situation did not justify a change in the regime of sanctions nor in the list of persons and entities under restrictive measures. One deceased person was removed from the list”, the Council stated in its press release.
The people currently sanctioned include Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, First Deputy Minister for Defence Arkady Bakhin, Deputy Minister for Defence Anatoly Antonov, members of the Duma and the Council of the Russian Federation, figures involved in Russia's annexation of Crimea, and the main leaders of the “people's republics” of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The legal acts will be published in the Official Journal of the EU on Tuesday 15 September. The EU's economic sanctions against Russia are currently in force until the end of January 2016.
Progress in implementing Minsk agreements. Elsewhere, during the Normandy-format meeting of foreign ministers (France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia) in Berlin on Saturday 12 September, the German and Russian foreign ministers affirmed that progress had been made in the peace process in Ukraine. “We are all agreed that the new ceasefire of 1 September was respected and, right now, it's a question of consolidating it”, said Germany's minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
In Steinmeier's opinion, there has also been “significant progress” with regard to the local elections. “There is an agreement in principle that a common basis [between the Ukrainian authorities and the separatists] must be found”, he said. His Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, nevertheless said he believed there were still differences of opinion on the modalities of the elections in the separatist “republics”. The Kiev authorities have scheduled these elections for 25 October, but the pro-Russian rebels want to hold these elections on 18 October in Donetsk and on 1 November in Luhansk. Progress has also been made on the withdrawal of heavy weapons and of weapons of less than 100 mm calibre.
A summit of heads of state in Normandy-format will take place in Paris on 2 October. (Camille-Cerise Gessant)