Finland took the initiative to introduce tariffs on the entire volume of imports from Russia to the countries of the European Union, which should operate in parallel with the current sanctions. About this informs Bloomberg.
The European Commission, as the executive body of the EU, “has a full mandate for this,” said Finland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen during a conversation with journalists. According to her, such a mechanism does not require the unanimous consent of all member states.
“If in the future some sanctions lose their effectiveness or something else happens, these tariffs will continue to apply,” Valtonen explained after the informal meeting of the EU foreign ministers held in Warsaw.
The tariff initiative comes amid potential new tensions in the EU, particularly from Hungary, which could prevent the continuation of existing tariffs imposed after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Unlike sanctions, trade measures such as tariffs can be adopted by a qualified majority vote, bypassing the unanimity requirement.
The European Commission has already considered the possibility of gradually replacing sanctions mechanisms with trade instruments. It is worth noting that the EU sanctions must be renewed every six months only with the unanimous support of all 27 member states, and Hungary has repeatedly threatened to veto it, as it did before.
