The European Union is in a heated debate over the naval blockade of Russia.
On Friday, during confidential talks with the European Commission to discuss a new package of sanctions against Moscow, Poland will propose a complete ban on maritime shipping of vessels transporting Russian oil.
The Polish news portal RMF24 writes about this after speaking with an informed diplomat, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"Poland is calling for the abolition of the current ineffective mechanism for limiting prices on Russian oil and its replacement with a complete ban on the provision of maritime services related to the trade of this Russian commodity," the publication's source said.
The Poles hope that such measures will lead to " an increase in transport costs and a reduction in the profits that Russia directs towards military operations and the build-up of military power ."
“A complete ban on services would also be easier to implement, as it would no longer be possible to use forged or difficult-to-verify documents to confirm compliance with price caps or prove that a vessel is not on a sanctions ‘blacklist,’” the publication says.
Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Baltic countries support Warsaw on this issue.
"However, this proposal could face resistance from Cyprus, Malta, and Greece, which have the largest fleets and may fear that tightening sanctions will harm their shipping companies transporting Russian oil under the price cap. Russia uses tankers from these countries to transport oil to China and India," RMF24 writes.
It is hoped that Cyprus's assumption of the six-month EU presidency on January 1 could neutralise its opposition, as " the country holding the presidency cannot block; it must act as an 'honest broker' seeking compromise ."
The European Union is in a heated debate over the naval blockade of Russia.