Tbilisi: The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has expressed her concerns about loopholes in the sanctions imposed on Russia, especially from the countries that look forward to or are already moving towards joining the bloc in the future. However, the President has refrained from making any mention of the names of the countries.
During the inaugural summit of the European Political Community in Prague on Friday, the EU President highlighted that Russia is already being affected by the sanctions that the European Union have imposed on it and expressed possibilities of new packages being developed in the future.
“The citizens of the EU should understand that sanctions are the price of democracy, which should remain unchanged,” Metsola said.
However, the President of the European Parliament has agreed that there is a lurking fear about how long the citizens of the EU member countries will be ready for strict measures against Russia as the country is one of the largest exporters of energy and the inflation in fuel and energy prices have made things somewhere tough. However, “there is no fatigue because of Ukraine”, she said.
Metsola said that the EU member nations have accepted and sheltered nearly seven million Ukrainians that have fled the nation since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February.
Before the beginning of the summit, the EU countries approved the eighth package of economic sanctions against Russia for its acts of aggression against Ukraine.
The package includes a ban on the transportation of oil at a higher price than the approved limit as well as restrictions on the import of steel products, plastics and some types of chemicals.Â
Furthermore, Russian citizens have also been banned from using “crypto wallet.”
In an informal meeting of the European Council, held on Friday in Prague, President Metsola stated that “Moldova and Ukraine need to continue on the road to EU membership, and we need to keep preparing the ground for enlargement, for the Western Balkans, for Georgia”.
