@jkovacs_pol · 27 Jan 2026 · 13:40
Adopted. The European Union has imposed sanctions on the United States of America.
Ports, insurance, payments, and a designation list on 2 February. Hungary abstained, which does not block, and has announced it will not implement.
Four hours over the scheduled close. Rewritten twice overnight. Nearly collapsed at noon.
Watching European officials discover, live, that a sanctions regime is easy to write and impossible to steer.
We have been on the receiving end of eleven of these. Every single one hit a hospital supply chain nobody intended to hit. Every single one had an official at a podium saying "there are humanitarian exemptions".
The exemptions are real. They also do not work, because the compliance officer is not reading the annex.
What was rejected matters as much. A general ban on US military aircraft and vessels using any EU infrastructure was dropped — Berlin and Paris said it would be "a blockade, drafted and signed."
Naming US officials individually was set aside and "held in reserve." That phrase is going to come back.
Estonia's minority statement, in full, because it is the best sentence anyone has produced this month:
"The package as adopted measures the rope while the arson is at the door."
Genuine question for anyone who knows: what happens to ordinary things?
I have a US pension from eight years in Boston. My sister banks with an American bank here. Is any of that in this, or is it only governments? Nobody in the coverage says and everyone I ask says "probably fine" in a voice that is not fine.
Only governments and only named companies. Personal pensions, personal accounts, ordinary retail banking: not in it, not intended to be in it, not going to be in it.
What CAN reach you is banks being over-cautious and slow. Annoying, not dangerous. Keep records of anything delayed.
"Probably fine" is right, and I understand why the voice is not fine.
Ports, insurance, payments, designations. Hungary abstains and refuses to implement. Estonia records that the package "measures the rope while the arson is at the door."…