Morning Brussels. Angela Skujins here ringing out the hopefully penultimate day of this heatwave in the Belgian capital, and the final day of the working week.
Here’s what’s driving your Friday: Discussion on the 21st package of sanctions fires up, Commissioner McGrath’s trip to Malta prompts questions, and an environment council’s first infantile guest.
Negotiating the blacklist. EU ambassadors are set to discuss today a revised compromise for the 21st package of sanctions against Russia, my colleague Jorge Liboreiro writes in to report.
The proposal, unveiled earlier this month, still contains some points that need to be ironed out before 15 July, when the automatic revision of the price cap (currently set at $44 per barrel) is due to kick in.
Ambassadors are considering whether to postpone the review until next year as the Commission has suggested, or establish a brand-new fixed cap. The price of Russia’s Urals crude soared in the aftermath of the Middle East conflict, but has since gone down and is now trading at about $58 per barrel. That’s something ambassadors will have to keep in mind.
