A prohibited group of members of the European Parliament wrote a joint letter urging Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to take “all necessary measures” to block the new sales of Greek ships to Russia, warning these transactions, the Kremlin helps support its ghost fleet and bypassing the G7 on oil price.
MEPs also require other measures to limit transfers of ship ships, a technique used to hide the origin of the goods and discourage Greek companies from transporting Russian oil.
The letter was approved by 36 legislators from different countries and political parties and sent to the Prime Minister's office on Friday.
“These actions are essential not only to limit the financial means of Russia to continue its war against Ukraine, but also to prevent environmental and security threats, to which your country, as a maritime nation, has already been directly exposed,” write deputies deputies.
“We expect concrete results.”
The legislators cite a recent study of Brookings, an American reflection group, showing that more than half of the ships used by the fleet of the shadow of Russia come from the owners of Western Europe, Greece being “by far the most frequent sellers”. The results are consistent with a previous study by the research service of the European Parliament.
“Such irresponsible actions, intended for financial gains, not only contribute directly to the suffering of the Ukrainian people, but also to undermine European and Greek security, including environmental risks,” Petras at theštrevičius, the Luituan liberal legislator who promoted the joint letter.
The Kyriakos Mitsotakis office did not immediately react to the letter.
A spokesman said: “The Greek authorities do everything to ensure compliance with sanctions and to prevent any bypass of sanctions on their territory.”
Greece, a coastal country with a powerful maritime industry, was examined for the role it has traditionally played in the trade in Russian fossil fuels. Although this activity has decreased considerably due to EU sanctions, it has not completely disappeared. To date, Member States are still allowed to buy Russian LNG.
A fleet difficult to catch
The so-called shadow fleet refers to the ships that the Kremlin uses to circumvent the price ceiling on Russian oil that Western allies have imposed to reduce its funding for the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. International oil and gas sales are the most important sources of income for the Moscow budget.
The fleet consists of former uninsured oil tankers who carry out misleading practices, in particular the transmission of falsified data, the deactivation of transponders to become invisible and make several ship transfers to hide the origin of their oil barrels. In doing so, ships can escape the control of the G7 and therefore the price ceiling.
Political pressure to suppress the fleet increased over time after a Incident series In the Baltic Sea, where Russian ships were accused of having sabotage against submarine cables.
Through Several packages Sanctions, the EU put on black list 153 ships belonging to the shadow fleet. All are denied access to the EU ports and EU services.
“We are constantly analyzing the data and proposals of the Member States for possible lists of ships,” an EU spokesperson said on Friday, adding that any additional list should be approved unanimously by the Council.
ADVERTISEMENTThe designation should continue in the next series of restrictions, which is already in preparation and could be presented to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs in May.
Despite the wide range of sanctions, the block did not introduce a simple ban on the sale or transfer of ownership of oil tankers to Russia. Instead, EU companies and individuals are forced to inform these transactions if the potential buyer is linked to Russia. The sale is prohibited unless the national authority gives authorization.
“The designation system that we have put in place makes ships much less attractive even on the international market, which increases the cost that Russia uses these ships, and this means that they cannot operate in their normal activity as usual,” said the same EU spokesperson.
