BRUSSELS - MEPs are calling for more targeted EU sanctions against Russia's "shadow fleet", a key source of funding for Moscow's war in Ukraine. EU Member States must strengthen monitoring and controls. The EU must ban all imports of Russian fossil fuels.
Russia uses old tankers, often uninsured and with unclear ownership, to export oil and oil products abroad, despite EU, G7 and international sanctions. These activities also raise concerns about the risk of environmental disasters, including major oil spills.
As part of a systematic effort to weaken the EU's restrictive measures, the 'shadow fleet' provides Russia with a key source of funding that enables it to wage its illegal and unjustifiable offensive war against Ukraine, MEPs said in a resolution adopted by a show of hands on Thursday.
In its resolution adopted on Thursday, the European Parliament calls for more targeted sanctions against the "shadow fleet" in future EU sanctions packages, such as identifying all individual vessels of the "shadow fleet" and their owners, operators, managers, accounts, banks, insurance companies. It also calls for the systematic sanctioning of vessels sailing in EU waters without known insurance and urges the EU to strengthen its surveillance capabilities, in particular drone and satellite monitoring, and to carry out targeted inspections at sea.
MEPs call on Member States to designate ports capable of handling sanctioned vessels carrying oil and liquefied natural gas and to seize illegal cargoes without compensation.
EU ban on Russian fossil fuel imports
In the resolution, MEPs also call on the G7 countries to more effectively enforce the price cap imposed on Russian oil transported by sea and to reduce the price cap substantially and close the loopholes that Russia is using to "repackage" and sell its oil and oil products at market prices.
The text of the resolution stresses that as long as the EU continues to import Russian fossil fuels, the impact of the existing sanctions and the financial and military support provided to Ukraine will be further weakened. Parliament therefore calls on the EU and its Member States to ban all imports of fossil fuels from Russia, including liquefied natural gas.
The text points to the need for much stricter enforcement of existing EU sanctions. The EP stresses that, should classic diplomatic efforts fail, the EU should seriously reconsider its bilateral cooperation with third countries that help Russia circumvent EU sanctions.
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