EU ambassadors fail to agree on extending sanctions against Russia, Slovakia and France didn't change their demands

The Permanent Representatives Committee of EU member states (Coreper) in Brussels held an extraordinary meeting on the morning of Monday 14 September on extending the EU's individual sanctions against Russia over violations of Ukraine's territorial integrity, but failed to reach an outcome – a further meeting will be held later the same day.

EU ambassadors failed to agree on extending sanctions against Russia on 14 September and agreed to try again later that day, since the deadline for extension expires on 15 September.

"Coreper met in Brussels at 9:00 on 14 September but failed to reach consensus – and agreed to hold another meeting later. The time of the meeting has not yet been set," one of the European Pravda sources said.

The diplomat pointed out that the individual sanctions over violations of Ukraine's territorial integrity need to be renewed before 15 September, otherwise they will automatically be lifted from more than 3,000 individuals and legal entities, mostly from Russia.

However, according to European Pravda, neither Slovakia nor France agreed by the morning of 14 September to change the demands without which they refuse to support extending the sanctions.

Slovakia is demanding that Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov be removed from the sanctions list, while France joined the demand to remove Usmanov as far back as 11 September.

On 12 September, European Pravda sources in French diplomatic circles explained why Paris wants sanctions lifted on Usmanov.

It was also reported earlier that EU ambassadors once again were unable to agree on extending personal sanctions over Russian aggression on 11 September, due to demands from Slovakia and France as to changes to the lists of individuals under personal sanctions.

The last extension of personal sanctions took place on 14 March. Then too, Slovakia pushed until the final hours on that occasion for Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Alisher Usmanov to be removed from the list.