If Ukraine and its supporters had any hope left for more EU sanctions in the short run, Hungary just crushed it,
Politico reports.
This week, Budapest objected to the usually routine extension of the bloc’s sanctions against Russian oligarchs, calling for three businessmen to be taken off the list.
EU countries eventually got Budapest on board, but the threats illustrated how Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán is not afraid to use any tools at his disposal — in this case an automatic, technical procedure — for political leverage.
More than six months into the war, the EU now seems to have lost its sanctions mojo.
In the first few months following Russia's invasion on February 24, European diplomats and officials worked frantically to hit Russian President Vladimir Putin's allies and industries with sanctions. The bloc’s solidarity in its drive to inflict pressure on Russia's economy — even amid costs at home — amazed even some of the EU’s harshest critics.
But now, as one senior official in an EU country said, the bloc is simply not thinking about sanctions anymore.
“The appetite is weaker,” according to a senior diplomat from an EU country. “It has become more difficult with every single package.”
The long delay to adopting the EU’s oil ban against Russia — and the excruciating process to devise exemptions and compensation for hold-out nations like Hungary — has left bitter memories. Orbán's move this week was just another reminder of that painful episode.
For a future package, the senior EU diplomat said, the real fear is that Hungary might not just stall, but actually block the decision completely.
And it’s not just Hungary. There is also concern about Italy's future position on sanctions once Rome has a new government. Matteo Salvini, the leader of Italy’s far-right League party, has argued Western sanctions against Russia harm Italy and has called on other leaders to rethink their approach.
Overall in Western Europe, sanctions fatigue has kicked in, especially as it becomes harder and harder to find measures that hurt Russia more than they damage the EU economically.
More importantly, the rising voter anger over soaring energy and consumer prices is also making European politicians increasingly nervous.
