EU unnerved by US sanctions vote

Bloc fears impact of new measures against Russia on energy-security interests

THE European Union will respond within days to a vote by the US House of Representatives to impose tough new sanctions on Russia that may affect energy flows to Europe, it said yesterday.

“The US bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU’s energy-security interests,” European Commission head JeanClaude Juncker said following talks on the matter by top bloc officials in Brussels.

“This is why the commission concluded that if our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days,” he said, repeating a threat made in May following talks with US President Donald Trump.

The US sanctions package – which also targets Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism, and North Korea, for its missile tests – was passed by 419 votes to three in the House on Tuesday and now heads for expected passage by the Senate.

The legislation is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly meddling in last year’s US presidential election, and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline which carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

But Brussels is worried that the fresh wave of measures could end up penalising European firms that contribute to the development of Russia’s energy sector.

Depending on its implementation, the bill could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe, including those transiting through Ukraine, it said.

The EU also raised concerns over the law’s impact on a major natural gas project out of the Baltic states.

Brussels further decried the sanctions bill as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupted previous close cooperation on measures against Russia.

The EU and US imposed the sanctions in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014 as the Ukraine crisis deepened after the ousting of a pro-Moscow government.

In addition to the Crimea measures, the EU imposed damaging economic sanctions against Russia after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine in July 2014, blamed by the EU on the rebels.

Despite initially opposing the bill, Trump appears to have few options in the face of near-total consensus in Congress, with a decision likely due by the middle of next month.

Moscow responded angrily to the vote, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov insisting that Washington had been warned dozens of times that any new sanctions would not go unanswered.

Ties between Moscow and Washington have been at their lowest point since the Cold War after the US began its sanctions in 2014.

Trump pledged to improve relations during his campaign, raising the prospect that he could roll back the Obama-era punishments.

Since then, accusations from US intelligence that the Kremlin meddled in the vote to get Trump elected have made any softening of the stance on Russia politically toxic.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would respond in kind to any breach by the US of the 2015 nuclear deal after the vote.

The Iranian parliament’s national security and foreign affairs committee will hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.