In her speech to the plenary session of the EU Parliament , Ursula von der Leyen announces harsh new sanctions against Moscow.
“We will propose a tenth package of measures. With new trade bans and controls on technology exports to Russia. This package has a total value of 11 billion euros. Among other things, we will propose restrictions on the export of multiple electronic components used in Russian armed systems, such as drones, missiles and helicopters,” explained the president of the European Commission.
According to EU data, following the introduction of sanctions, Russia's revenue from gas sales to Europe has fallen by two thirds and the price cap causes Moscow to lose 160 million euros in revenue every day. Furthermore, gas prices in the EU are now lower than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to Von der Leyen, therefore, President Vladimir Putin's attempt to "blackmail Europe with energy was a real failure" and, in fact, one year after the start of the conflict, Moscow "has already lost the energy war he had started ».
Finally, the president of the European Commission underlined that "thanks to European unity and an intelligent energy policy, we have resisted Russian pressure and have freed ourselves from our energy dependence". If the economy of the Member States " is going much better than expected" , on the contrary, according to Von der Leyen, " the Kremlin is forced to sell gold reserves to fill the gaps left by the lack of oil revenues".
(Unioneonline/F)
