News / Brèves Back to previous selection / Retour à la sélection précédente EU Fails to Agree on New Sanctions against Russia 9 September 2014 (EIRNS)—After a weekend of backroom arm-breaking and pressure tactics, by the end of Monday Sept. 8 the British Empire was still unable to impose an agreement on the 28 EU member governments to adopt new sanctions against Russia. Despite earlier outright lies that the sanctions had been agreed upon (when Lyndon LaRouche was told on Sept. 5 that EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy had so stated, LaRouche said: "He’s lying."), the same Van Rompuy was forced to admit late today that the adoption of sanctions had been postponed, but he insisted that they "will take place in the next few days. This will leave time for an assessment of the implementation of the ceasefire agreement and the peace plan," he stated. A more honest, albeit unnamed, EU diplomat told Reuters that it was not clear if and when the sanctions would take effect, noting that the EU ambassadors probably wouldn’t even take the matter up again until Wednesday Sept. 10. Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Finland, Sweden, and Cyprus are reported to oppose further sanctions, especially as the Ukrainian ceasefire adopted on Sept. 5 was largely holding—much to London’s dismay. Several hours before the EU ambassadors convened in Brussels, Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev had called on the Europeans not to decree new sanctions, "because none of the sanctions make peace more likely in Ukraine." Medvedev warned that Moscow’s response in case of new sanctions would be "asymmetric," likely the closing of Russian airspace for all western airlines. This could be ruinous for many airlines which are already in trouble and depend on the shorter and less costly routes to Asia from Europe via Russian territory, he said, urging the EU to take that into consideration. He added that "certain parts of Ukraine also have power shortages and receive electric energy from Russia. And he who makes not really smart decisions about restricting power supply to Crimea, should realize that symmetrical measures are possible."