EU oil ban adds pressure on Russia but obstacles remain

The European Union is proposing a comprehensive oil embargo against Russia for the first time, as Moscow continues its war on Ukraine.

The bloc hopes Europe will stop importing Russian oil by the end of the year. However, questions remain.

The European Union is proposing a comprehensive oil embargo against Russia for the first time, as Moscow continues its war on Ukraine.

The bloc hopes Europe will stop importing Russian oil by the end of the year. However, questions remain.

Now, the Commission wants all EU members to stop all Russian crude oil imports within six months and only import refined products such as petrol, diesel, or kerosene into the European Union until the end of the year.

Moreover, the EU seeks to ban shipping and insurance companies from dealing with Russian oil.

“This measure aims to leverage Russia’s high dependency on Western insurers and shippers and to deter third countries from backfilling,” Maria Shagina, visiting senior fellow at the Center on US Politics and Power and the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told Al Jazeera.

“The absence of a European energy embargo currently constitutes the major weakness in the Western sanctions regime.”

Most EU sanctions against Russia so far have emerged from EU Council decisions and regulations, and are essentially amendments to measures imposed on Russia after it annexed Crimea in 2014.

Since the start of the current war in February, the EU Council has continued to amend these decisions and their accompanying regulations, which are enforceable by EU law.