BRUSSELS, December 15 (Sputnik) — EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini said Monday that additional EU sanctions against Crimea could be announced as early as on December 18.
Speaking at a news conference following the first Association Council meeting between the European Union and Ukraine, Mogherini said that in addition to the expanded individual sanctions list the EU will most likely introduce this week restrictive economic measures against Crimea.
"Just today in the Foreign Affairs Council we restated unanimously the political commitment for swift implementation of the part of the sanctions that were already decided, so I would expect the work at the working group level to be finalized in these very same hours and then a written procedure could finalize their implementation in time for the European Council [meeting] on Thursday," Mogherini said.
According to a draft EU document on the expansion of sanctions against Crimea, leaked to the media, the new restrictive measures include the prohibition for EU firms to invest in the region, as well as the ban on trading EU oil and gas exploration technologies.
In July, the EU imposed investment restrictions in certain sectors of the Crimean economy, and banned all imports from the Crimean Peninsula without Ukraine's certification.
Crimea and the city of Sevastopol reunified with Russia after a referendum held in March, when more than 96 percent of the peninsula’s population voted in favor of the move.
