As proposed sanctions on Russia’s nuclear energy company Rosatom struggle to garner support of all EU member states, Lithuania has proposed splitting the measures into distinct parts and adopting as many as possible.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis calls the approach the “onion principle”.
“We had earlier suggested Rosatom as a company, but we failed to garner support due to a very principled veto by several countries. Now we have detailed our proposal, in other words, we have split the proposal into, I believe, seven parts,” Landsbergis told reporters at the parliament on Tuesday.
The proposal on sanctions for Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company was built on the “onion principle”, he said.
“We can peel it off and leave as many sanctions as can be agreed. Ideally, we should agree on all seven measures: sanctions for board members, new contracts [...],” Landsbergis said. “But if we failed agree on one of them, we can peel it off and stick to some smaller compromise option.”
In his words, the adoption of even one restrictive measure would be a “step forward”.
“We have no plans to step back, we are looking for a compromise, we are mobilising a compromise,” Landsbergis said.
The EU has already announced ten sanction packages for Russia since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022. They cover banks, senior officials and companies.
The EU is currently negotiating an 11th sanctions package, and Lithuania wants to ensure that Rosatom is included in it one way or another.
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