Jim Armitage: Don’t expect any action on Ukraine sanctions from EU

Global outlook

European ministers have been getting increasingly noisy this week about the need to slap economic sanctions on members of the Ukrainian government.

Lithuania demanded the EU act to “end the abduction, torture and inhuman treatment of peaceful protesters”. Its foreign minister, Linas Linkevicius, declared there was growing support for targeted sanctions, with visa bans and “a careful investigation of bank accounts”.

That would be entertaining, particularly in London, where strangely wealthy Ukrainian officials and their families are said to house ill-gotten assets through impenetrable London front companies.

Britain’s Baroness Ashton, the EU foreign policy chief, was in Kiev this week to meet protesters and government members. She’s previously said she and her colleagues were thinking “very carefully about the options” around sanctions. But that’s a long way from actually doing anything.

Let’s not forget that this is the same Lady Ashton who led the relaxation of sanctions against members of the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe despite concerns about irregularities at the election last year. And it is the same EU which allowed itself to be persuaded by Belgium to permit the resumption of lucrative Zimbabwean diamond trading in Antwerp despite continued corruption concerns.

In short, the EU is not always keen to prevent trade with the unsavoury.

Privately, officials say the only countries where politicians are making sanctions noises are those with relatively large expat Ukrainian communities or links – Lithuania, Poland, the Balkans. But Western leaders have little appetite. Germany’s foreign minister raised the prospect, but Angela Merkel remains opposed.

A meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council will discuss the idea on Monday, but it will be smothered. A bland “keeping all options open” statement of diplomatese will be trotted out to the media.

Little wonder the US, which says its sanctions gun is ready to fire, is so frustrated at the EU’s inaction. Protesters must be feeling let down by the Europe they so want to join, too. How long before they start shouting the bugged words of the sweary Washington mandarin Victoria Nuland, swapping her f-bomb for Ukrainian: “Ebat the EU!”