The main point of contention concerned a proposed ban on European companies shipping Russian natural gas to third countries. Athens resisted, arguing that the measure would be ineffective as vessels could easily change their flag and registration. Ultimately, the opposition was overcome with a lengthy one-year extension and exemption for the transport of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) to third countries, with automatic renewal.<\/p>\n
As reported by Politico<\/em>, citing diplomats, member states showed solidarity toward Greece with the expectation that Athens would do the same in future cases. The Greek position was based on previous agreements by EU leaders and doubts about the practical implementation of the measure.<\/p>\n In parallel, the package provides for a 12-month freeze on the price cap for Russian crude oil, which currently stands at $44.10 per barrel. This measure aims to prevent Russia from benefiting from market fluctuations, particularly amid developments in the war.<\/p>\n The Irish presidency of the European Council welcomed the agreement as a significant step targeting Russia’s revenues, its shadow fleet, and its supply chains. “Europe stands with Ukraine,”<\/em> it noted characteristically.<\/p>\n European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> was quick to comment positively on the development. In a post, she stated that the EU sanctions continue to hit the economic foundations of Russia’s war machine, while new entities are being added, such as 32 Russian banks, cryptocurrency companies, and oil trading platforms.<\/p>\n She also highlighted the first targeting of vessels supporting the shadow fleet, as well as steps toward banning the entry of Russian fighters into the EU. According to Newsbreak<\/em>, this agreement reflects the Union’s effort to maintain pressure on Moscow, despite the difficulties faced by certain member states due to economic interests.<\/p>\n EU member states agreed on a 21st sanctions package against Russia after Greece’s initial objection was resolved with a one-year exemption for transporting Russian LNG to third countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":11576,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[158,159,100,9906,9186,214,4097],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-11577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-athens","tag-european-union","tag-greece","tag-lng-transport","tag-natural-gas","tag-russia","tag-sanctions","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11577"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=11577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Cap on Russian Oil<\/h2>\n
Statements from the Irish Presidency<\/h2>\n
Von der Leyen’s Reaction<\/h2>\n