The European Union extended sanctions against Russia until the end of January 2017

The EU Council approved the decision agreed upon by the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU countries to extend economic restrictive measures against Russia for six months, until January 31, 2017. This was reported in the Communist, published on the Council website.

“Having given an assessment of the implementation of the Minsk agreements, the Council decided to extend the sanctions for a new period of six months until January 31, 2017,” the document says. “This decision was made according to the written procedure and unanimously, as required by the rule applied to all decisions on the extension of restrictive measures.”

The sectoral sanctions of the European Union, adopted due to aggression of Russia in Ukraine, came into force on August 1, 2014 . They were introduced for a period of 1 year. Restrictive measures affected the banking and oil sector, the defense and industrial complex, dual-use products and technology. In particular, a ban on the supply of equipment for the oil industry, on technological cooperation with Russia in the development of Arctic shelf and shale deposits was introduced. The EU also introduced the embargo for weapons with Russia and the export of dual -purpose technologies.

The validity of the sanctions has been extended several times. On June 21, the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU countries (Coreper) at a meeting in Brussels agreed on the extension of six months of economic restrictive measures in relation to Russia.

The day before, in an interview with Euronews, the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker also stated that the sanctions of the European Union against Russia will be extended . “At the moment, it is completely clear that in June we will extend the sanctions,” he said. “There is a direct relationship between the Minsk agreements, their implementation and sanctions.”

“I was in St. Petersburg last week, took part in the Economic Forum, and also met with President Putin. Both in my speech and at a meeting with the Russian leader, I very clearly expressed the idea that the Minsk agreements should be implemented. Simply, the more implemented points of the Minsk protocol, the less sanctions,” the junker said.

He added that the European Commission will monitor the situation. “Over the next six months, we will continue monitoring to understand if there is sufficient progress in the implementation of the Minsk agreements in order to remove part of the sanctions,” he added.