The European Union needs to reconsider its anti-Russia sanctions, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Saturday
ROME (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th December, 2019) The European Union needs to reconsider its anti-Russia sanctions, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Saturday."Our companies are feeling the effect of Europe and Russia's [sanctions] regime and the counteractions. We think that we need to launch the process of political reflection about the sanctions within the framework of the European Union," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of the 2019 Mediterranean Dialogues conference in Rome.
He noted that the automatic prolongation of the sanctions every six months did not take into account damage done to Italian companies, and whether the sanctions had worked at all.
"I told [Russian Foreign] Minister [Sergey] Lavrov that we were expected further steps regarding the Minsk agreements. In that regard the [Normandy Four] meeting next week will have a special significance," Di Maio said.
The minister expressed his confidence in the Normandy peace process.
"We will see if there will be positive steps further. During the last months, I have seen small positive signs. We hope that they will continue," he shared his optimism.
Since the reunification of Crimea with Russia in 2014, the country has been subject to economic sanctions, imposed by the United States and the European Union. Even though the European political establishment supports EU sanctions, some European politicians denounced them as counterproductive and detrimental to everyone involved.
