United Kingdom: Mateusz Morawiecki, the prime minister of Poland, stated on Saturday that the EU is feeling "sanction fatigue" and has "less appetite" to impose additional financial sanctions against Moscow. Some of the bloc's members are likely to oppose the sanctions Morawiecki has suggested.
Morawiecki claimed in an interview with Poland's RMF radio station that his government constantly informs Brussels of "holes and loopholes that Russia uses to circumvent sanctions" while also "directing" the EU on what to target with each new set of sanctions.
While Morawiecki acknowledged that "today there is much less willingness and appetite for further sanctions," he acknowledged that the topic of additional anti-Russian sanctions will return to the EU agenda "in the coming weeks."
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Since the beginning of Moscow's military operation in Ukraine in February of last year, the EU has imposed ten rounds of economic sanctions on the country. In addition to blacklisting Russian officials and their families, these sanctions have cut off the bloc's access to Russian gas and oil and prohibited the trade of the majority of goods with Russia.
The IMF predicts that the Russian economy will continue to expand more quickly than the formerly dominant EU economy, Germany. While this is going on, Europe is dealing with a record-breaking energy crisis and record-high inflation. The inflation rate in Poland reached 18.4% in February, which was a record high dating back to 1996.
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Josep Borrell, the head of the EU's foreign affairs department, said earlier this month that "there is not much more to do from the point of view of sanctions" amid a growing consensus that the sanctions policy has failed. Morawiecki, on the other hand, wants the bloc to move forward with additional sanctions, telling RMF that a potential 11th package should include limitations on Russian diamonds and Rosatom, the nation's state nuclear energy corporation.
Hungary, which relies on Russian uranium to power its sole nuclear plant and is currently building two new reactors at the facility with Rosatom, would probably deny the latter request. According to Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, "nuclear energy will not be included in the scope of sanctions."
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Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia all support sanctions against Rosatom. It is unknown if Finland and Bulgaria, both of which use Russian nuclear fuel in their reactors, would be in favour of such a proposal.