MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union may start reconsidering economic sanctions against Moscow on September 30, Kommersant newspaper reported Tuesday citing the EU foreign policy chief's spokeswoman Maya Kocijancic.
The European Union's Foreign Affairs Council will undertake a "complex review of the implementation of the Minsk peace plan, and the ceasefire regime in particular. This review is currently in preparation," Kocijancic told Kommersant.
The document is reportedly to be examined by the EU Permanent Representatives Committee, which will then decide what to do with the sanctions against Russia. In the best-case scenario, EU officials may support a gradual easing of certain sanctions, the newspaper said, citing an anonymous EU source, which also stressed that if the restrictions were lifted, it would happen in a manner, different from their introduction.
Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe brokered a ceasefire agreement between Kiev and eastern Ukrainian independence forces during the meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine held in Minsk on September 5.
The ceasefire has mostly been holding in southeastern Ukraine. The group's September 19 session has led to the adoption of a nine-point memorandum, specifying the implementation of the ceasefire.
Following the reunification of Crimea with Russia, the West introduced several rounds of economic sanctions against Russia. The latest round of restrictions complicated access to Western capital markets for a number of key Russian banks, oil and defense companies. Moscow responded with issuing a one-year ban on the importation of certain food products, made in the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia and Norway.