BRUSSELS, February 6. /TASS/. The European Union’s anti-Russian sanctions have failed to reach a desired effect and hit the the European economy instead, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Monday.
"The sanctions regime against Russia has failed both in economic and political terms," he said after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
He said the sanctions imposed on Russia following its reunification with Crimea were an "erroneous response." These sanctions have inflicted economic damage on the European Union and all its member states, Szijjarto stressed.
The Hungarian top diplomat noted that the issue of the anti-Russian sanctions should be considered at a next summit of the European Union.
Following the developments in Ukraine in 2014 and Crimea’s reunification with Russia, the European Union imposed sanctions on Russia and has numerously extended them ever since. Talks on visa-free travel and on a new basic cooperation agreement were suspended. A number of Russian officials were banned to enter the European Union and their assets were frozen. Apart from that, the European Union imposed trade, financial and defense-sector restriction. In all, more than 150 individuals and several dozens of legal entities have been blacklisted by the European Union. Sectoral sanctions were imposed on a number of Russian financial, oil producing and defense entities.