There Germany is blocking the first ones sanctions on the Russian gas. Or maybe not. In the last few hours there has been talk of the energy dossier again and Politico has relaunched a large indiscretion on Berlin's moves. Citing six European officials, the portal reported that the European Union had failed to agree on new measures against Russia's LNG (liquefied natural gas) sector due to theobstructionism of the country led by Olaf Scholz.
According to what has been reconstructed, the crucial point of package consists of a ban on the re-export of Russian gas from EU ports and on financing the LNG terminals planned in the Arctic and the Baltic. “The EU countries were close to an agreement, but the talks stalled at the last minute,” a source testified. The problem would be Germany, intimidated by the expansion of a measure that would have forced European companies to ensure that their customers did not sell the sanctioned products to Moscow.
Berlin's main concern was that its small businesses would suffer if this clause were extended to products for mainly civilian use such as chemicals or metalworking machinery, and not just firearms, articles for combat and dual-use goods. Hence the need for the European Commission to negotiate with Berlin to convince Scholz not to place the veto.
Considering what has happened since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Germany's turnaround would not be a big surprise. But Berlin was keen to clarify what happened. Chancellor Scholz, protagonist at the G7 in Borgo Egnazia, confirmed his reservations on the current proposal for new European sanctions against Russia, but his government does not represent an obstacle to the agreement. “We are not blocking the sanctions”, he clarified to the Zdf microphones: “As with all the other packages of measures, we are working with the others intensively and we want to make sure that everything is done in the most pragmatic way possible”. Updates will follow, but something doesn't add up.
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