Finland denies obstructing EU deal on Russia sanctions

Finland’s prime minister denied his country had obstructed the EU’s latest Russian sanctions and said other nations supported its view that there should be a delay in their implementation.

EU ambassadors will meet on Wednesday to assess the ceasefire in Ukraine after Finland triggered an unexpected delay of several days over the coming into force of the latest batch of EU sanctions that will target Russia’s state-owned energy companies.

“To be very crystal clear: Finland has not been a problem. Finland has been part of the solution,” Alex Stubb, Finland’s centre-right prime minister, told the Financial Times.

He said Finland had “worked very hard with our EU partners” and had supported both previous sanctions and the latest ones. “The only thing that is doubted, by many countries not just Finland, is whether the timing is right,” he added, saying Helsinki wanted to see if the ceasefire would hold.

But Finland’s position was not agreed on by all members of the government with Erkki Tuomioja, the Social Democrat foreign minister in a five-party coalition, registering his formal objections to the policy. People briefed on the negotiations said he had put on the record his belief that there should be no new sanctions but he was overruled by other ministers, including Mr Stubb and the leader of the Social Democrats.

Government insiders said his objection would not affect Finland’s position or stop the sanctions coming into force. But officials were angry that their attempts to avoid airing internal differences publicly over Russia had been thwarted.

Finland has the longest border of any EU member with Russia at 1,300km and its stuttering economy has strong ties to that of its bigger eastern neighbour.

Mr Stubb said the latest sanctions would have a limited impact on Finland. “But the potential indirect impact of either counter-sanctions or Russia's economic situation deteriorating is important for us, as of course it is for all EU members. That is the point of sanctions,” he said.

The Finnish prime minister insisted: “There is no split in the coalition. We stand by the agreement. We have doubts about the timing of the sanctions. We hope there will be a permanent ceasefire, that there will be a permanent peace plan.”

In depth

Crisis in Ukraine

Pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine have escalated the political turmoil that threatens to tear the country apart

Further reading

The unexpected delay came after intense lobbying in Brussels by Russian diplomats, who spoke directly with Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, and several EU ambassadors ahead of the emergency meeting on Monday night, urging them to take account of the situation on the ground and arguing new sanctions would undermine Ukraine’s president Petro Poroshenko, who was throwing his political weight behind the ceasefire plan.

Despite the delay insisted on by Finland and a handful of other EU countries, diplomats in Brussels said implementing the sanctions is just a matter of time because they have been formally agreed and the Brussels bureaucracy is legally bound to implement them unless the 28 members unanimously agree to reverse them.

Maja Kocijancic, a spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign policy chief Lady Ashton, said EU ambassadors will meet again on Wednesday to reassess the ceasefire, though she said it remained unclear whether a decision would be taken on implementing or suspending the sanctions at the meeting. “The ceasefire seems to be holding, with some incidents,” Ms Kocijancic said.