Warsaw dragged out discussions on Thursday, deeming the fifth set of sanctions insufficient.
Correspondent in Brussels
After a first meeting on Thursday morning, EU ambassadors finally decided in the evening on an embargo on Russian coal as part of a fifth sanctions package against Russia.
This embargo will come into force at the beginning of August, 120 days, four months after the publication of the new package in the official journal of the European Union expected on Friday. A period which could disappoint Poland when this Member State had proposed, during the negotiations, to reduce it to two or three months when Germany pleaded for four. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in the evening that his country needed this transition period to cut itself off from Russian coal. The EU imports 45% of its coal from Russia for a value of 4 billion euros per year.
Read alsoPoland emerges as a key European power against Putin
If the discussions on Thursday were longer than expected, it is because Poland considered “insufficient” the package of measures, as confided by a European diplomat. The set does not…
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