BRUSSELS, June 28. /TASS/. The Council of the European Union officially prolonged economic sanctions targeting specific sectors of Russia’s economy by six months until January 31, 2018, according to a statement published on Wednesday.

This decision follows an update from French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to the European Council of June 22-23, 2017 on the implementation of the Minsk Agreements. "This paved the way for the renewal of sanctions for a further six months," the statement said.

"The Council formalised this decision today by written procedure and, in line with the rule for all such decisions, unanimously," it read.

The latest step is of a purely technical procedure: the political decision on prolonging sanctions was taken at the EU summit on June 22. Last time, the anti-Russian economic sanctions were extended in January 2017 until July 31.

The EU’s policy of sanctions has three aspects: visas against Russian individuals, economic sanctions against a number of Russian companies in the oil, defense and financial sector and restrictive measures against Crimea.