BRUSSELS, July 17 (RIA Novosti) – The European Council has asked the European Commission to re-assess EU-Russia cooperation programs as part of a new set of restrictive measures against Russia over the Ukrainian crisis.
“The European Council invites the Commission to re-assess EU-Russia cooperation programs with a view to taking a decision, on a case by case basis, on the suspension of the implementation of EU bilateral and regional cooperation programs,” the Council said in a communique adopted late on Wednesday.
“However, projects dealing exclusively with cross-border cooperation and civil society will be maintained,” the document said.
In addition, the European Council requested the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development “to suspend the signature of new financing operations in the Russian Federation.”
The European Council has also ordered EU member-state envoys to ready a fresh sanctions list that would impose restrictions on a broader range of Russian individuals and entities based on additional criteria.
Russia’s Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said earlier he hoped there would be no major changes in the European Reconstruction and Development Bank’s activities on Russian soil. He stressed that Russia was the bank’s main source of income as “a country with the biggest investment portfolio, the highest loan quality and the biggest source of banking revenues.”
The European Union and the United States accuse Moscow of meddling with Ukraine’s internal affairs. EU’s sanctions have been gradually extending since the initial introduction after Russia’s reunification with Crimea and usually followed the US lead.
The EU said previously it had a three-stage sanctions process. The third stage would constitute broad economic sanctions against entire sectors of the Russian economy.
The United States has considerably smaller trading volumes with Russia than Europe, which allows the Obama administration to lobby sanctions against the key sectors of Russian economy, while some EU member states that have close trading ties with Russia oppose the measures.
Moscow has repeatedly condemned the sanction “language," warning of the boomerang effect such limitations can have.
