Economic sanctions against Russia to be extended before EU summit – Tusk

Thursday, June 16, 2016 - 21:20 (EEST) Section: Latest news

The European Union will extend economic sanctions against the Russian Federation even before the start of the Summit of EU leaders, says President of the European Council Donald Tusk, Europeiska Pravda reported.
”I think that today the situation is very clear …  we need to link the sanctions against Russia with the completing the Minsk agreements,” Tusk told reporters during his visit to Finland Thursday.
”I`m quite sure that we will prolong our sanctions now, before the European Council meeting, because I think that we can decide on prolongation at the level of lower institutions – COREPER and the Council of the EU,” said Tusk.
”It is less controversial than you expect it is today,” he said.
At the same time, according to him, now there is a request from some leaders of the need of a ”deep and very frank discussion about not only sanctions but about our relations with Russia.”
Tusk said that at the October European Council meeting, there will be a special evening dedicated exclusively to the discussion on this topic. After that discussion, Tusk said he would be ready to ”to say something more about the new steps, also on sanctions.”
As reported earlier, Donald Tusk said that the EU needed to maintain sanctions against Russia to the full implementation of the Minsk agreements.