On 26 May 2025, ‘The White Paper: The Future of European Leadership in Economic Deterrence of Aggression' was presented in Brussels.
This document analyses the EU's current achievements and challenges in sanctions policy, providing recommendations for improvement. The proposed sanctions instruments aim to limit Russia's ability to continue its war against Ukraine, while also strengthening Europe's collective security in the long term.
The White Paper's authors emphasise that Russia will remain a strategic military threat to EU member states even after hostilities in Ukraine cease. Therefore, it is in the EU's interest to continue deterring Russia through economic restrictions, such as:
- confiscating frozen Russian assets;
- blocking Russia's revenues from the sale of energy resources, metallurgical products, and nuclear technologies;
- increasing pressure on the Russian financial sector;
- depriving the Russian military–industrial complex of access to Western technologies, goods, and expertise;
- Strengthening individual sanctions against individuals who support Russian aggression and hybrid attacks against the EU.
- reviewing the approach to coordinating and synchronising sanctions policy between countries.
In the short term, the EU should focus on the following:
- scaling up sanctions;
- reforming the process of adopting and extending sanctions;
- strengthening the mechanism for ensuring compliance with sanctions by all EU member states;
- supporting civil society initiatives, such as research, OSINT investigations, and advocacy.
After three years of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU has enough economic tools to slow down the Russian army on the battlefield and persuade them to negotiate fairly and reasonably, the White Paper says.
Ukrainian civil society organisations, for their part, will advocate for the implementation of the White Paper's recommendations at the EU level.
This document, approved by the Expert Group on the Development and Implementation of Sanctions Policy under the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, was written by the Public Council on Sanctions and coordinated by the Economic Security Council of Ukraine. NAKO experts also contributed to the preparation of the document.