EU Warns U.S. It May Respond Swiftly to Counter New Sanctions on Russia

• It is safe to conclude that US hegemony over Europe is coming to an end.
• EU Warns U.S. It May Respond Swiftly to Counter New Sanctions on Russia
  by Alissa de Carbonnel, Philip Blenkinsop and Robin Emmott; editing by Mark Heinrich and Mark Trevelyan, http://www.reuters.com/
  BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Union warned on Wednesday that it was ready to act within days to counter proposed new U.S. sanctions on Russia, saying they would harm the bloc’s energy security.
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  Sanctions legislation overwhelmingly approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday has angered EU officials: they see it as breaking transatlantic unity in the West’s response to Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine.
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  Brussels also fears the new sanctions will harm European firms with connections to Russia, and oil and gas projects on which the EU is dependent.
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  “The U.S. bill could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU’s energy security interests,” EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker said in a statement issued after a meeting at which European commissioners were united in their views, according to a senior EU official.
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  “If our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days. ‘America First’ cannot mean that Europe’s interests come last,” he said, mentioning President Donald Trump’s guiding slogan.
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  A EU document prepared for the commissioners, seen by Reuters, laid out the EU’s plans to seek “demonstrable reassurances” that the White House would not use the bill to target EU interests.
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