Central Italian Businesses Ask Juncker to Suspend EU Sanctions Against Russia

ROME (Sputnik) — The entrepreneurs of the Italian Marche region, that was hit heavily by a recent earthquake, have sent a letter to the European Commission asking to temporarily lift anti-Russia sanctions in order to improve bilateral trade, Alberto Drudi, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of the province of Pesaro and Urbino, said Friday.

"As a result of the sanctions introduced by the European Union against Russia we are suffering enormous losses that hurt the economy of our region and especially our province," Drudi quoted the letter, addressed to European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, to RIA Novosti

The letter to Juncker reportedly noted that the suspension of the sanctions would allow the businesses of Marche and Umbria regain their positions on the Russian market thus helping rebuild the regions hit hard by the October earthquake.

In the first six months of this year, the entrepreneurs of Pesaro and Urbino lost about 35 percent of their export to Russia, bearing the losses of 88 million euros (roughly $95.6 million), the Italian official told RIA Novosti.

A week ago, Drudi and the president of the Chamber of Commerce of Perugia province Giorgio Mencaroni sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin asking him to lift the countermeasures introduced by Russia in response to the European sanctions.

The United States, the European Union and some of their allies have imposed several rounds of sanctions against Moscow over Crimea’s reunification with Russia and Moscow's alleged involvement in the conflict in Ukraine, which started as Kiev launched a military operation in the country's eastern regions in April 2014.

In response, Moscow imposed a year-long food embargo on the countries that had sanctioned it, which was later prolonged as the sanctions were extended.