ROME, July 6. /TASS/. The regional council of the Italian province of Tuscany unanimously passed a resolution on Wednesday urging to cancel the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions, the secretariat of Lega Nord (Northern League) party, the document’s initiator, told TASS.
A similar resolution was approved in the Italian region of Lombardy on July 5 and earlier in the provinces of Veneto and Liguria.
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Most of the seats in the Tuscany regional council are held by Italy’s ruling Democratic Party. As compared with the documents adopted in the three other regions, the Toscana resolution contains no clause on recognizing the status of Crimea.
Back in October 2015, a resolution was adopted in Tuscany on the initiatives of the regional government for overcoming the anti-Russian sanctions on the basis of the principle of peace and the creation of conditions for development.
The EU introduced sanctions against Russia in 2014 in the wake of events in Ukraine and Crimea’s reunification with Russia. It has enlarged and prolonged them on a number of occasions since then.
As part of the sanction drive, it suspended talks with Russia on visa-free traveling and on a new basic agreement on cooperation.
Also, it imposed a ban on trips to Europe for a number of Russian officials and froze their bank accounts, along with introducing restrictive measures in trade, finance and the military sphere. All in all, the sanctions lists affected 151 persons and 37 legal entities.
The sectoral sanctions have embraced more than twenty Russian financial, oil producing and defense organizations.
On July 1, the EU Council officially extended its economic sectoral sanctions against Russia for another six months until January 31, 2017.
Russia retaliated with sanctions of its own on August 7, 2014. Apart from the EU and the US, these sanctions also hit Australia, Canada, and Norway.
The countersanctions imposed a ban on imports of fruit, vegetables, meat, dairy products and fish from these countries.
On June 29, Russia extended its counter-sanctions imposed two years ago. The relevant decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russia’s counter-sanctions have been extended from August 6, 2016 to December 31, 2017. If necessary, the Russian government may introduce proposals on changing the term of the country’s counter-sanctions.
According to data of Lega Nord, the Italian economy has lost €3.6 billion from the EU’s sanctions against Russia.