"European
Union (EU) leaders are meeting, when in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave
sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, the pressure grows, Announces Politico Playbook.
Top EU diplomats
warned on Wednesday that the situation was serious and could soon get
complicated.
According to
Politico Playbook, the European Commission has been working all night looking
for ways to defuse the target bomb, which politicians and diplomats call the
unintended consequence of the EU's fourth package of sanctions, which aimed to
ban steel and ferrous metal imports from Russia.
As the railway
line that transports goods from Russia to Kaliningrad passes through Lithuania,
and thus the territory of the EU, customs officers have been stopping freight
trains from Saturday to check them.
Both Lithuania and
the Commission have tried to make it clear that such a step is not an
independent decision for Vilnius - that Lithuania has followed the guidelines
on how to implement the sanctions announced by Brussels.
According to
official officials, the Commission is currently completing the information
provided.
"We are in
close contact with the Lithuanian authorities and intend to provide further
guidance," Commission spokesman Eric Mamer wrote in a Twitter message.
According to E.
Mamer, Lithuania must additionally check the transit through the territory of
the EU by road and rail, but the checks must be targeted, proportionate and
effective: they must be based on rational risk management, as this is the only
way to avoid circumvention of sanctions, but keep free transit.
According to two
officials, the new guidelines make it clear that Lithuanian customs must
inspect goods to avoid circumvention of sanctions, but may allow the transport
of metal if it is destined for the Russian domestic market, i. y. Kaliningrad.
Nevertheless, the
Prime Minister of Lithuania Ingrida Šimonytė is of the opinion that the ban on
the transit of steel and ferrous metals to the territory of the EU is one of
the clauses announced by the bloc, which has been approved by all 27 member
states.
"As set out
in the EU's fourth sanctions package, adopted in 2022, On 15 March, the EU's
measures restricting imports and transit through the EU of Russian steel and
other ferrous metal products into the EU were due to enter into force in 2022.
June 17." she said. "Lithuania applies the restrictive measures provided for
in the EU in accordance with the EU laws and the consultations provided by the
European Commission."
However, Politico
Playbook assures that between Lithuania's statement that EU sanctions prohibit
the transit of metal, Lithuania must block such transit to Kaliningrad, and the
Commission's statement that Lithuania should only carry out proportionate
checks but allow free transit, there is a contradiction that is hard to see, but
quite serious.
Politico Playbook
raises the question of whether Brussels is instructing Lithuania to withdraw."
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