MOSCOW (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova — EU Sanctions against Russia prove that non-European economic interests are more dominant in the European Union than the EU's own economic goals, Italian members of the European Parliament told Sputnik Friday.
"We have the impression that the economic interests of our continent are overshadowed by non-European interests which want to reshape the global geopolitical balances and scenarios," Ignazio Corrao and Dario Tamburrano from the European Parliament's Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy Group told Sputnik in a joint statement.
On Thursday, the European Council agreed that economic sanctions against Russia will remain in place and will be linked to the implementation of the Minsk agreements. The EU reserved the right to take further measures if necessary.
"This arrogant presumption consists in considering their own model of society as the best and the only possible. This is the consumer-mercantilist model based on growth and on a financialized economy," the lawmakers said.
The EU member states appear to be split when it comes to sanctioning Russia, with Italy, Spain, Austria, Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and Slovakia opposing economic restrictions.
The Italian parliamentarians said that countries supporting a rigid stance on Russia are mainly from the former Soviet bloc, where the majority of the population still remembers the difficult years.
The European Union, the United States and their allies have imposed several rounds of economic sanctions against Moscow, blaming it for interfering in Ukraine's internal affairs. Moscow has repeatedly denied its involvement in the Ukrainian crisis.
The restrictive measures imposed on Russia target the energy, banking and defense sectors of the country's economy, as well as certain individuals.
In response to Western sanctions, in August 2014 Moscow introduced a ban on the import of a range of food items from the countries that supported the restrictions.
