By Jamie Dettmer, Wilhelmine Preussen
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis remains dissatisfied with the EU’s tenth package of sanctions and is mounting a last-minute lobbying campaign to include sanctions on Russia’s nuclear industry.
The European Commission’s next sanctions package is expected to be agreed on the one-year anniversary of Russia’s brutal and illegal invasion of Ukraine on Friday. Three diplomats told POLITICO last week that it won’t include Russia’s nuclear sector or its representatives, despite an appeal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to sanction Russia’s nuclear energy giant.
Landsbergis expressed his frustration at the Commission’s approach, telling POLITICO on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference over the weekend that he thought “there’s a way for Rosatom to be added.”
Hungary has long opposed targeting the nuclear sector, pointing to its dependency on Rosatom. France has also expressed caution, with a French economy ministry official telling reporters that “many nuclear power plants use fuel of Russian energy.”
Landsbergis said he understood the worries of “certain countries which have contracts with Rosatom.” The argument that canceling contracts could pose a risk to nuclear safety is “reasonable,” he added.
But he pointed out that the EU faced similar challenges when targeting Russian oil and argued it should pursue a similar strategy now.
“We derogated some countries because of their dependency on Russian oil, or the fact they didn’t have alternative sources or because their oil refineries suited only oil coming from Russia,” he said.
Countries with existing contracts with Rosatom should be able to honor them in order to guarantee nuclear safety and energy production, according to Landsbergis, “but no new contracts would be signed, no new bank accounts opened in any EU country.”
