“It was not flagged during our G7 finance ministerial meeting earlier this week, so came as a surprise,” Dombrovskis said.
“What we were discussing in G7 [is] actually that now is not the time to roll back sanctions against Russia because Russia is actually the country that is benefiting from the war in Iran and having substantial windfall profits due to the higher energy prices,” he added.
“It is important to sustain and, if anything, strengthen sanctions against Russia in [the] current situation and that’s the point we’ll continue to insist on with our international partners including the U.K.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the move on Wednesday, telling MPs that the U.K. had issued “two targeted short-term licenses to phase the new sanctions in and protect U.K. consumers.”
The move was “partly” prompted by the need to protect British businesses from “instability” in energy markets sparked by the Middle East conflict, Trade Minister Chris Bryant told MPs on Wednesday.
According to figures from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the two fuels represent 99 percent of U.K. imports from refineries processing Russian crude, meaning their exemption effectively neuters the new sanction policy, which was announced in October last year. The EU implemented a similar ban in January.
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