Updated 11th September 2014 13:16 clock

EU sanctions Russia

pipelines in Leuna Saxony. Here comes to oil from Russia. | © Katja Buchholz / Getty Images

The European Union imposed in the Ukraine crisis on Friday new economic sanctions against Russia. This is what the EU ambassadors agreed on Thursday in Brussels as EU diplomats said. After the EU already majority state-owned Russian banks has made it difficult to borrow in Europe, meets the new package of sanctions diplomats suggest that around for the oil companies Rosneft and Transneft, and the oil arm of energy giant Gazprom.

The EU countries had already agreed on Monday to the new measures. Your start but had been postponed in view of the agreed ceasefire in eastern Ukraine first. The EU ambassador advised since several times on the way forward. By publication in the EU Official Journal on Friday that new sanctions are effective now.

This step had been delayed because there had been a debate among the EU Member States, the circumstances under which sanctions could be lifted. There should still be on Thursday a statement by European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, said a diplomat. It will show the EU willingness to take back the sanctions in the event that Russia seeks constructively to the completion of the Ukraine crisis, it said.

Previously discussed, re-evaluate the sanctions in a few days in the light of developments in Ukraine and maybe even pick up again. German Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) spoke out on Wednesday in parliament for an immediate implementation of the sanctions.

With the sanctions the EU wants to bring Russia to use its influence on the local separatists to bring about an end to the fighting.