Following the departure of former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban from power after 16 years, many European Union diplomats thought it would be easier to approve sanctions against Russia.
Considering him a Kremlin-friendly leader within the bloc, other European politicians and diplomats have often complained that Budapest has relaxed both the blacklisting of key Russian individuals and measures aimed at weakening Moscow's economic and military power.
Therefore, expectations were high when the European Commission's proposal for the 21st package of EU sanctions since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 arrived in European capitals in early June.
And early drafts, which Radio Free Europe had access to, indicated that it was indeed full of ambitious measures.
Still no agreement
However, almost six weeks later, there is still no agreement on the entire package, as all 27 EU member states must give their consent.
The self-imposed deadline of July 15, the last scheduled meeting of EU ambassadors on the Wednesday before Belgium's national holiday on July 21, when most EU officials take a month-long vacation, has come and gone.
Moreover, almost every measure has been reduced or removed to the point that EU diplomats with whom RFE/RL has been in contact now call the package "Emmenthaler" after the famous Swiss cheese full of holes.
One of the main proposals was to ban imports of Russian fish, primarily cod and hake. But several member states, including Germany, Poland and Portugal, began to seek exemptions, as Russian fish is used for domestic food processing, including the production of fish sticks, for example. In the end, the measure was relaxed so much that it was lifted altogether.
It was a similar story with the other major proposal: an automatic ban on the entry of former Russian fighters in Ukraine into the EU's Schengen zone.
It is notable that Estonia insisted on this proposal, as in 2025 there was a 10 percent increase in the number of tourist visas issued to Russian citizens compared to the previous year, with France, Italy, and Spain accounting for the majority.
Since many Mediterranean countries are not ready to reduce tourism, their main source of income, in the face of expectations of another rich summer, nothing concrete has been decided.
Instead, there will only be an obligation to seek amendments to the Schengen Visa Code to ban short-stay visas for soldiers and ex-combatants, if the necessary unanimity can be achieved.
How to sanction oil?
There has also been significant wrangling over price caps on Urals crude, Russia's main export blend and a significant source of revenue for the Kremlin, as oil and gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz have been halted or severely restricted in recent months due to the war in the Middle East.
The European Commission's initial proposal was to freeze the cap for six months at $44,10 a barrel, to avoid an automatic jump to $60 on July 15, which would provide a welcome boost to Russia's war chest.
It was then reduced to three months before EU ambassadors, with the deadline looming early this week, agreed to extend it by just seven days, until July 23.
They will meet again on July 22 with the aim of reaching a final agreement, but the whole issue has become entangled with Greece's request for an indefinite exemption from the agreement reached in October 2025 to ban deliveries of Russian liquefied natural gas from the EU to non-EU countries, starting from January 1, 2027.
EU diplomats familiar with the matter say Athens argues that if EU companies are banned from delivering Russian liquefied natural gas to customers outside the bloc, the business will simply shift to shipping companies and ports outside the EU, while Russia will continue to export the fuel. Greece says it would therefore be better to allow its companies to continue making those deliveries.
The European Commission will now conduct a rapid impact assessment of how much Russia stands to gain or lose if the exemption is granted.
Austria has also delayed adoption of the package by demanding that its Raiffeisen bank be compensated for what Vienna claims is the expropriation of its Russian operations worth 2,5 billion euros.
The Central European country tried the same thing last year, asking Brussels to seize and sell frozen Russian assets in Austria worth two billion euros, most of which consist of shares in the Austrian construction group Strabag, previously held by Rasperiya, a company once controlled by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
Austria claims that the proceeds should compensate Raiffeisen Bank for losses arising from a Russian court ruling in favor of Rasperiya, a case that resulted in the seizure of the bank's Russian operations.
Austria argued that most of the money would go to a fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine and that the move would deter the Kremlin from using Russian court rulings to seize EU assets in Russia in the future.
Other member states, however, believe that such a move would result in Moscow being encouraged to target other European companies still in the country.
They also expressed dissatisfaction with the idea that the EU was helping Raiffeisen Bank, which had decided to stay in Russia to operate, while many other European governments were actively discouraging their companies from staying in that market.
Ultimately, the package is expected to retain more blacklists of Russian banks, as well as vessels believed to be part of Russia's secret fleet, which is used to evade oil sanctions.
More than 250 Russian individuals and companies will also have their assets frozen and will be hit with visa bans, including Arkady Dvorkovich, the former Russian deputy prime minister who now heads the International Chess Federation, and Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev.
But even there the list is diluted.
Bulgaria quickly vetoed the inclusion of three names from the original proposal: Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church; Vagit Alekperov, head of Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil; and Russian billionaire Iskandar Mahmudov, whose companies provide spare parts for the metro system in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
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