Ireland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have sent a joint paper to the European Commission calling for a ban on cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy, according to a document seen by EUROPE on Friday 23 September.
As an eighth wave of sanctions looms in the face of the “partial mobilisation” announced by the President of the Russian Federation on Wednesday 21 September (see EUROPE 13027/9), several Member States are putting forward a series of proposals, first and foremost to sanction Russian uranium. This is a long-standing demand of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who on 7 August called on Twitter for sanctions on Russian nuclear activities.
Russian uranium has so far remained outside the scope of the European Union sanctions voted against Russia. The Russian state-owned company Rosatom can thus continue to cooperate with Member States and supply fuel to nearly twenty nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe, in Finland, but also in France, within the framework of the partnership signed last December with the French multinational Framatone, a specialist in the nuclear sector.
The signatories of the document thus propose to amend the definition related to the energy sector in the framework of Regulation 833/20114 on restrictive measures in respect of Russia’s actions in Ukraine as follows: “‘energy sector’ means a sector covering the following activities: (i) the exploration, production, distribution within Russia or mining of crude oil, natural gas or solid fossil fuels, the refining of fuels, the liquefaction of natural gas or regasification; (ii) the manufacture or distribution within Russia of solid fossil fuel products, refined petroleum products or gas; or (iii) the construction of facilities or installation of equipment for, or the provision of services, equipment or technology for, activities related to power generation or electricity production both in Russia or abroad”.
Proposals for other sanctions
The five countries are also calling for: - a ban on imports of liquefied petroleum gas products by suggesting the introduction of a transition period; - a ban on the use of Kaspersky Lab (a cybersecurity company) technology in the EU; - the disconnection of Russian and Belarusian banks from the SWIFT network; - a ban on diamond imports from Russia; - a ban on the sale of real estate to Russian citizens or companies.
In addition, they propose to broaden the sanctions against new persons, new easily substitutable products and closure of certain loopholes in the derogations provided for.
As for Belarus, they want to ban the import of cigarettes and alcohol, among other things.
The Commission, which has begun consultations with the national governments, could present proposals for sanctions on Sunday 25 September, according to a diplomatic source. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)