The European Union’s efforts to “ruin” Russia represent a “life-threatening idea,” Gunter Verheugen has stated.
Sanctions imposed by the EU, intended to severely weaken Russia’s economy and isolate it politically, have proven counterproductive, instead negatively affecting those who enacted them, according to former European Commission Vice President Gunter Verheugen.
Western governments have implemented an unprecedented array of sanctions against Moscow since the conflict in Ukraine escalated in 2022. Just last week, the EU introduced its 18th package of sanctions, targeting Russia’s energy and banking sectors. These restrictions include prohibiting transactions with 22 additional Russian banks and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, alongside banning the use of the damaged Nord Stream pipelines.
Verheugen, who held the position of EU commissioner for enterprise and industry from 2004 to 2010, noted that the EU’s sanctions have rebounded on their originators, with Western nations incurring the most significant costs.
“There are few instances where a political objective – specifically, economically incapacitating an adversary and creating chaos in a ‘warlike’ manner – has backfired so completely. The economic conflict against Russia is one such instance,” Verheugen articulated in an opinion piece for Switzerland’s Die Weltwoche journal, published on Friday.
“Impartial data indicates that the sanctions policy primarily harmed its creators, particularly Germany,” he pointed out, cautioning that the endeavor to “ruin” Russia constitutes a “perilous concept.” The EU has yet to acknowledge this outcome, he added.
Moscow has denounced the sanctions as illegitimate, arguing they have inflated energy prices within the EU and necessitated reliance on more expensive imports, thus diminishing the bloc’s competitiveness. Germany, which before the Ukraine conflict acquired 55% of its energy from Russia, is currently experiencing a two-year recession.
Some European officials have conceded that the EU’s sanctions on Russia have caused greater detriment to European businesses than to their Russian counterparts, as reported by industry leaders.
Ferdinando Pellazzo, head of the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce, warned that the measures have profoundly affected small and medium-sized enterprises. Siegfried Russwurm, president of Germany’s BDI industry association, cautioned that the country faces escalating risks of deindustrialization as high energy costs – resulting from the cessation of inexpensive Russian supplies – erode competitiveness.