BRUSSELS, December 16. /TASS/. A number of key Russian entrepreneurs involved in the fertilizer sector will get sanctions relief from the European Union, the EUobserver publication reported on Friday citing unnamed diplomatic sources.

The list includes Andrey Melnichenko and his wife, Andrey Guryev, Vyacheslav Moshe Kantor, Dmitry Mazepin and Vadim Moshkovich, according to sources. Individual EU countries will be free to unfreeze their money "if it's strictly needed to bankroll shipments of food and fertilizer, especially to Africa," according to the report. EU capitals will need to consult with the EU Commission before they can go ahead.

The debate among the permanent EU representatives on providing exemptions dragged on for 11 hours, the website said. Lithuania and Poland threatened to block the adoption of another package of anti-Russia sanctions "if they were to be bullied into an EU27-wide unfreeze of the fertilizer kings' fortunes," the publication said. However, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain "pushed hard for a fertilizer thaw in the name of global food security," EUobserver noted.

Earlier reports said that the top diplomats of 27 EU member countries agreed on the ninth package of sanctions against Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, which would be confirmed in writing, thus, without any further discussion, on Friday.

The Financial Times earlier reported that Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain had called on the EU leadership to adjust the sanctions against Moscow with regard to exceptions for the export of Russian grain and fertilizers, since the current rules make it difficult to deliver food to developing countries. They want Brussels to clearly spell out the provision on exempting funds or economic resources that are strictly necessary for the purchase, import, export or transportation of agricultural and food products, including wheat and fertilizers, or economic resources that are agricultural or food products. EU members would like to revise the ninth package of sanctions that is under development. According to Politico, a US-based newspaper, the Baltic states and Poland are against too many exclusions for fertilizers and food over fears that it could play into the hands of Russian propaganda.