{"id":432808,"date":"2025-07-18T12:47:26","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T10:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/07\/18\/la-slovacchia-cede-lue-adotta-il-18esimo-pacchetto-di-sanzioni-contro-la-russia\/"},"modified":"2025-07-18T15:02:19","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T13:02:19","slug":"slovakia-backs-down-eu-adopts-18th-sanctions-package-against-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/07\/18\/slovakia-backs-down-eu-adopts-18th-sanctions-package-against-russia\/","title":{"rendered":"Slovakia backs down; EU adopts 18th sanctions package against Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – All’s well that ends well. After more than a month of stonewalling, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico<\/strong> has finally withdrawn his veto<\/strong> on the 18th package of sanctions against Russia<\/strong>, allowing it to be formally adopted this morning. The EU is thus proceeding with a new<\/strong> sanctions package<\/strong> to limit revenues fueling the Federation’s war against Ukraine, just in time before the summer break. In the crosshairs are oil exports<\/strong>, with the introduction of a variable cap, and Moscow’s banks<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Robert Fico<\/strong>, in a lengthy video posted last night (July 17) on Facebook, explained why his government, after over a month of resistance<\/a>, finally abandoned its opposition<\/strong> to the adoption of the 18th round of restrictive measures against Moscow<\/strong>, an opposition it had upheld six times in five weeks. <\/em><\/u><\/p>\n

The prime minister explained how maintaining the veto on sanctions<\/strong> decided by Brussels “would at this point be counterproductive<\/strong>” for the central European country. The change of pace is due, he said, to the reaching of an agreement<\/strong> with the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, on a series of energy supply guarantees<\/strong> for Slovakia. Specifically, Bratislava, still dependent on cheap Russian gas<\/strong>, would introduce emergency mechanisms to protect the domestic market<\/strong> from sudden fluctuations in methane prices and supply shortages. <\/p>\n

Fico added that he would keep a close eye on the implementation of guarantees<\/strong>, saying he is ready to resume the fight at any time. After today’s vote, “the second phase of our battle<\/strong> with the European Commission over Russian gas will begin,” he warned without giving further details.<\/p>\n

To the satisfaction of High Representative Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, who at meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the 27 member states<\/a> on Tuesday (July 15) had said she was “confident” that an agreement was possible within the week, the General Affairs Council<\/strong> was therefore able to formally adopt the sanctions<\/strong> by written procedure this morning, following the Danish Presidency’s last-minute summons of ambassadors.<\/p>\n

The new restrictive measures, presented by the twelve-star executive<\/a> in early June and described by the head of EU diplomacy as “one of the strongest sanctions packages adopted to date<\/strong>,” will hit even harder two key sectors of the Russian economy, the energy and financial\/commercial sectors.<\/p>\n

The move comes just two days after the presentation<\/a> of the new EU budget 2028-2034,<\/strong> designed by von der Leyen, which includes<\/a> a special 100 billion fund dedicated to supporting Ukraine<\/strong>. For the head of the Commission, with today’s sanctions, “we are striking at the heart of Moscow’s war machine<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\"Kaja<\/a>
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Kaja Kallas (photo: European Council)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to diplomatic sources, on the energy, there will be a further crackdown on fossil fuel imports from the Kremlin<\/strong>, including the blacklisting by Brussels of 105 new oil tankers from Russia’s ghost fleet<\/strong> (bringing the total to over 400 vessels), a ban on any transaction through the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines,<\/strong> and a ban on the purchase from any third country – except Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Switzerland – of refined oil products obtained from Russian crude<\/strong>, to counter the circumvention of the Western embargo.<\/p>\n

The package also envisions a lowering of the oil price cap<\/strong>, a controversial measure on which the EU has come out in the open without Washington’s support<\/a>, even though it was the G7 that initially decided on the oil price cap. EU diplomats say there will be a “dynamic price cap mechanism” for crude oil,<\/strong> through which a unit cost cap is set at 15 percent below the average market price.<\/strong> In concrete terms, this means a drop from USD 60 to USD 47.6 per barrel<\/strong>, while a “dynamic revision mechanism”<\/strong> will allow for adjustment as the price rises.<\/p>\n

In the financial sector, there are new restrictions against 22 Russian banking institutions<\/strong>, the extension of the current exclusion from the Swift system to a total ban on transactions<\/strong>, the prohibition of transactions with the Russian Direct Investment Fund<\/strong> (RDIF), and a further restriction of Moscow’s access to civil and military dual-use technologies<\/strong> (e.g., CNC machines used in the production of components for the automotive, space, and missile industries).<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/a>Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico (photo: European Council)<\/figure>\n

Slovakia had stood in the way of the new package since its presentation, but in reality, Bratislava’s obstructionism<\/strong> comes from afar. At least since the beginning of the year, when Fico engaged in a tough standoff <\/a>with Brussels and other chancelleries following Kyiv’s decision to stop Russian gas transit through Ukrainian territory<\/strong> at the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister exploited the unanimity requirement<\/strong> – necessary to approve sanctions against third countries – as a lever to raise his voice on another issue<\/a>, where instead a qualified majority of the Council decides: that of the phase out<\/strong> of fossil fuels imported from the Federation by 2028<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The stop to Russian gas imports, Fico argues, would be catastrophic<\/a> for the national economy. That is why, in recent weeks, the national-populist leader (one of Vladimir Putin<\/strong>‘s staunchest allies, along with Hungarian Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>) has maintained his veto on the latest sanctions, until today. But that may not happen again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Green light from the ambassadors of the Twenty-Seven for the new restrictive measures, designed to hit Moscow’s oil exports in particular. Bratislava’s opposition disarmed, satisfied with the guarantees offered by Brussels on gas supplies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":432787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26458,31262,26327,31466,26359,25803,26360],"class_list":["post-432808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-18-packet-sanctions-en","tag-robert-fico-en","tag-russia-in-2","tag-slovakia-and"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432809,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432808\/revisions\/432809"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/432787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}