Good morning, readers. This is Mared Gwyn. In this Tuesday morning newsletter: the final push to get fresh sanctions on Russia over the line, exclusive lines from an interview with the Bulgarian Foreign Minister, and another packed day of enlargement talks.
Final push for deal: the EU’s attempts to finalise the 21st package of sanctions against Russia are getting down to the wire, my colleague Jorge Liboreiro writes in, after yesterday’s meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels failed to deliver a breakthrough. The ball is back in ambassadors’ court, who are set to meet again today at 16.00, mere hours from the 15 July deadline. If no deal is reached by then, the price cap on Russian oil will jump from €44 to €58 per barrel, a disastrous scenario for everyone involved as Moscow would earn more revenues.
The cap, in fact, is no longer a point of contention. Rather, member states can’t agree on a ban on the transit of Russian LNG through EU waters. Greece, in particular, is pushing for an exemption so that its powerful maritime industry can continue servicing Moscow’s energy sector. It comes as fresh numbers showed the bloc had spent almost €6 billion buying LNG from Russia’s Yamal facility between January and June, a record sum for the period.
