"Oil Cap in New EU Sanctions Package Signals Independence From G7", 18 July 2025

The European Union finally managed to approve a new round of sanctions on Russia... the bloc managed to agree to lower the Russian oil cap substantially, and do so on its own without agreement from the United States and other G7 nations -- who can join at a later stage -- a sign of a more confident and independent EU on the world stage.

When the oil price cap was first agreed on a G7-level in December 2022 it was meant as a sort of global compromise over an EU ban on services to transport Russian oil. The idea was to decrease Russian trade revenues but at the same time allow third countries, notably in the poorer global south, to still get access to the product in order to avoid shortages.

The cap was set at $60 per barrel and even though it should have been reviewed every three months to reflect fluctuations in world oil prices, it has remained at that level for the last two and half years.

The EU finally decided to push for a lowering to $45 per barrel when it presented its new round of sanctions, its 18th since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, in June...

...Germany and France as well as the European Commission still aimed at resuscitating the new cap and tried to convince Cyprus, Greece, and Malta - countries with considerable maritime services sectors – to agree on EU-only measures instead.

Eventually the trio got onboard with lowering the cap to $47.6 per barrel, 15 percent lower than the average market price of Russian crude oil...

EU officials RFE/RL has spoken to hope that the United Kingdom, another significant maritime insurer, will join and that this will eventually prompt the United States to get onboard as well...