European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the European Union should focus less on adopting additional sanctions against Russia and more on making existing restrictions work effectively.
She said the priority should be to develop tools that prevent already agreed measures from being bypassed. “We need to focus not so much on imposing new sanctions as on making sure there are no opportunities to circumvent the measures already in place,” von der Leyen said.
The European Commission president made the remarks during her annual State of the European Union address. The speech was streamed on the European Parliament’s YouTube page.
Von der Leyen’s comments suggest that Brussels is placing greater emphasis not only on debating new sanctions packages, but also on stronger enforcement and oversight of the restrictions that have already been adopted.
