On 15th March, the European Council adopted a fourth package of restrictive EU measures against Russia in response to its aggression against Ukraine (see the Press Release here).
The agreed measures are the following:
- A full prohibition of any transactions with certain Russian State-owned enterprises across different sectors – the Kremlin’s military-industrial complex.
- An EU import ban on those steel products currently under EU safeguard measures, amounting to approximately € 3.3 billion in lost export revenue for Russia. Increased import quotas will be distributed to other third countries to compensate.
- A far-reaching ban on new investment across the Russian energy sector, with limited exceptions for civil nuclear energy and the transport of certain energy products back to the EU.
- An EU export ban on luxury goods (e.g. luxury cars, jewellery, etc.).
- Moreover, the list of sanctioned persons and entities has been further extended to include more oligarchs and business elites linked to the Kremlin, as well as companies active in military and defence areas, which are logistically and materially supporting the invasion. There are also new listings of actors active in disinformation.
- A ban on the rating of Russia and Russian companies by EU credit rating agencies and the provision of rating services to Russian clients, which would result in them losing even further access to the EU’s financial markets.
- The EU, together with other World Trade Organization (WTO) members, agreed to deny Russian products and services most favoured nation treatment in EU markets. This will suspend the significant benefits that Russia enjoys as a WTO member.
