In the foreign ministers’ meeting today in Brussels, the 18th round of sanctions on Russia failed to pass. EU foreign policy high representative Kaja Kallas said she will try to get it through tomorrow. Slovakia, among the 27 member nations, stood against the sanctions. Slovak leaders oppose the energy plank, in which all gas from Russia would be banned as of Jan. 1, 2028.
Kallas addressed another issue before the EU meeting started, namely that the United States has not joined the European Union’s plans to lower the price cap on Russian oil as part of the bloc’s 18th sanctions package. Kallas said, “Even if the Americans are not on board, the other G7 countries are on board, then we will move on with this.”
The EU has been negotiating a new sanctions package for the last three weeks and is seeking to agree either on a reduction of the price cap to $45 per barrel or on the introduction of a flexible cap pegged at 15% below the prevailing market price of oil.
