An Austrian bank and Slovakian cars still stand in the way of further EU action on Russia — while any possible EU Israel sanctions are being put on hold.
Austria's ambassador to the EU maintained a "reserve" on the 19th round of Russia sanctions in the EU Council in Brussels on Wednesday (15 October).
Vienna is trying to hold out for a "derogation" to let Austria bail out Raiffeisen Bank International from a €2bn fine by using EU-frozen Russian money.
Slovakia also kept a "reserve" on Russia, but on unrelated car-industry grounds.
Slovak prime minister Robert Fico said on Facebook on Wednesday he had "no interest in dealing with sanctions against Russia", until he saw "more concrete proposals" in draft conclusions of an EU summit, due on 23 October, "on how to deal with the automotive crisis".
The RIB and Slovak car reserves aside, the Danish EU presidency has locked in the content of the 19th measures.
These include a ban on Russian liquid gas imports, blacklisting 120 'shadow fleet' tankers, and curbing Russian diplomats' travel in the EU.
"Russia has increased the intensity of its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine ... demonstrating Russia's lack of real political will to end its war of aggression," leaders aimed to say, according to draft summit conclusions seen by EUobserver.
"Russia's assets should remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war of aggression against Ukraine and compensates it for the damage caused," they also aimed to say, referring to some €200bn of frozen Kremlin assets in Belgian financial firm Euroclear.
Leaders aimed to pledge "air defence and anti-drone systems, and large-calibre ammunition" to Ukraine.
What a Ukrainian army major, speaking to EUobserver last Sunday, wanted were long-range missiles, but the draft EU summit conclusions made no mention of those.
EU leaders aimed to help fight Russia's shadow-fleet threat by also "strengthening cooperation with flag states", the draft EU-27 declaration said.
And that meant more EU diplomatic "arm-twisting" of top flag-issuing states, such as Panama, to give the EU the legal right to stop and impound 'stateless' vessels.
Leaders aimed to voice "strong commitment to ensure full accountability for [Russia's] war crimes" in Ukraine, making special mention of "Ukrainian children ....unlawfully deported and transferred to Russia".
But their joint reaction to the Gaza ceasefire was more anodyne.
They aimed to "welcome" the deal, personally feted by US president Donald Trump and eight EU leaders in Egypt on Monday.
They planned to call for "unimpeded access and sustained distribution of humanitarian aid at scale" to Gaza, where Israel killed over 67,000 people, in what UN experts called a genocide.
They're also to urge "de-escalation in the West Bank", where Israel killed some 1,000 more people.
But that was a far cry from EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen's State of the Union speech in September, when she proposed Israel trade sanctions and blacklisting two Israeli ministers.
The EU ambassadors in Brussels on Wednesday didn't call for von der Leyen to formally retract her proposal, while focusing on aid access, EU diplomats said.
"Now is not the time to sanction, but everything is far from being solved," an EU diplomat said.
"It's up to those who care about justice, ending the unlawful occupation and apartheid, to keep the proposals squarely on the table and push for their adoption," said Claudio Francavilla from the Human Rights Watch (HRW) group.
EU monitors had been meant to help reopen the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza on Wednesday, but were unable to do so, due to ongoing Israeli restrictions.
Foreign correspondents in Jerusalem have also been calling for access to Gaza.
They were likely to see phased access, starting with journalists embedded with Israeli Defence Force units, based on past conflicts.
But for HRW's Francavilla: "Israel should allow independent monitors, including journalists and UN experts, into Gaza without delay. Reliable, vetted data and information is key to inform international action and will help give a full picture of the scale of the crimes committed over the past two years".
The Israeli government press office, which governs access to Gaza, and Israel's EU embassy didn't reply on Wednesday when asked about media access.
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Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.
Andrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.