European Union ambassadors have still not agreed on the 12th package of sanctions against Russia.
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Radio Liberty correspondent Rikard Jozwiak reported this on December 12.
He noted that Austria is now complaining that Ukraine has added the Raiffeisen Bank International banking group to the list of international war sponsors.
Raiffeisen is one of the few European banks that continues to operate in Russia; the bank also took 200% advantage of the sanctions that led to the exit of its competitors from the Russian market. Raiffeisen is one of the most important financial channels in which Russian businesses carry out transactions in dollars and euros. Thanks to this, the bank receives huge revenues, from which it then finances the budget of the aggressor countries with its taxes.
It should be noted that Austria’s neighbor Hungary has been blocking the release of 500 million euros from the European Peace Fund, through which aid for Ukraine is financed, for months due to the fact that the Ukrainian NAPC included the largest Hungarian bank, OTP Bank, on the list of war sponsors.
In early October, Ukraine removed OTP Bank from the list, satisfying one of Budapest’s key demands. However, Hungary claims that Ukraine has not provided guarantees that the situation with OTP Bank or any other Hungarian enterprise will never happen again, and therefore continues to maintain its veto.
Earlier, Jozwiak wrote that at the European Union summit in Brussels, Hungary consistently blocks all issues related to Ukraine. He noted that the EU ambassadors in Brussels spent the entire day in meetings.
EU ambassadors met all day today (Sunday) in Brussels. No movement as Hungary continues to block everything related to Ukraine. If the issue is resolved, it will be submitted to the EU summit, which will take place on December 14-15, said Jozwiak.
Today it became known that Austria opposed the start of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, said Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer. He explained this by saying that Kyiv should not receive privileges that Bosnia and Herzegovina does not have.
Nehammer’s words are presented in the minutes of the parliamentary session of the Committee on European Union Affairs of the National Council of the Republic. The Chancellor said that Austria “will not agree to accession negotiations with Ukraine in the current conditions.”
According to him, “there should be no favoritism towards Ukraine compared to Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is also currently negotiating accession.”
Nehammer believes that Ukraine and Moldova should be offered the prospect of joining the EU “as a sign of solidarity”, but he opposed the accelerated procedure.
Source: Racurs
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