ROME - Authorized by the European Council, the EU Council's Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) has, on July 30th, agreed on new restrictive measures against Russia.

 The measures relate to the four sectors decided on by the EU Foreign Ministers in their Council meeting last week. The decisions will limit access to EU capital markets for Russian State-owned financial institutions, impose an embargo on trade in arms, establish an export ban for dual use goods for military end users, and curtail Russian access to sensitive technologies particularly in the field of the oil sector.

 The decisions were made unanimously. The new sanctions approved in Brussels send a strong, unified signal to Russia to keep to the commitments made in recent months. This was the view of Italian Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini, who commented: “The European Union decided unanimously today to apply new sanctions to Russia. This step has become necessary in view of Moscow’s failure to collaborate, as it was frequently asked to do, quite apart from its failure to respect the commitments it made officially. At the very least, the Malaysia Airlines tragedy should have prompted the Russian authorities to at last respect – through concrete acts – the repeated commitments made in recent months. But that did not happen”, she observed.

 “The violence in eastern Ukraine continues and they continue to deny full access to the area where the aircraft fell to allow the search and investigation teams to recover all the bodies and conduct an impartial and reliable investigation”. “The package of new sanctions put forward by the EU foreign ministers last week and adopted unanimously today by the permanent representatives sends a strong signal of unity and a clear message to Moscow. I hope the Russian Federation will finally follow up on its commitments and work for a political solution to the crisis”, concluded Minister Mogherini.

 On the same issue, Finland’s Prime Minister Alexander Stubb stated that “ The crisis in eastern Ukraine has not de-escalated despite our efforts to find a negotiated solution. The situation left the EU countries with no other option than to reinforce the sanctions. In its conclusions at the end of June, the European Council called on Russia to take action to stabilize the situation in Ukraine but Russia has failed to promote positive developments in the area.

 It is regrettable, that the Union must introduce additional restrictive measures against Russia but it was now inevitable. We will naturally continue active efforts to exert influence both on the EU level and through bilateral discussions to resolve the crisis”. Stubb emphasized that the Ukraine crisis must be settled peacefully and that all parties must commit themselves to negotiations based on President Poroshenko's peace plan.

 The agreed measures affect only a very small part of the trade between Finland and Russia, so the overall impact on Finland will not be severe. However, the effect on different businesses will vary. With stagnating economic activity in Russia, the Finnish economy may also suffer indirect negative effects.

 “Throughout the spring and summer, we have worked with the European Commission to ensure that the effects would be equally distributed among the EU Member States and that the package of agreed measures would be acceptable from Finland's point of view, too. I am content with the way our influencing has worked”, Stubb said.