EU pushes to end Ireland’s alumina exports to Russia

Earlier this week, a majority of members of the European Parliament supported the resolution, seen as a symbolic gesture that will increase political pressure on the European Commission to curb significant exports from Ireland to Russia.   Alumina has been in the spotlight for some time now. An investigation, carried out by The Irish Times in collaboration with the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, found that the Aughinish Alumina plant has been shipping large volumes of alumina to smelters in Russia.      That aluminium is then sold to the Moscow-based trading company ASK. However, ASK’s 2024 customer list included more than 40 EU-sanctioned companies, many of which are owned by the Russian defence conglomerate Rostec and produce weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles, rocket systems, and long-range bombers, according to sanctions listings.

The investigation could not trace a specific batch of Aughinish alumina to a particular weapon because their alumina is blended with alumina from other sources during smelting. But customs and trade data show that since 2023, more than half of the plant’s alumina exports have gone to smelters owned by Rusal in Russia. After processing, those smelters have sold over $650m of aluminium to ASK, which in turn serves sanctioned Russian defence companies.   The European Parliament has no role in setting economic sanctions. They are proposed by the European Commission and must then be unanimously approved by the EU’s 27 member states. The parliament’s motion called for stronger EU measures on Russia to deprive Moscow of the resources “necessary to finance its military machine” and sustain its military campaign in Ukraine. Most of the Irish MEPs were in favour regardless of the effects it might have on their industry.      The European Parliament approved an amendment appealing for the EU to blacklist Russian steel suppliers and to introduce a complete ban on the export of alumina to Russia.      The European Commission has not imposed any sanctions on alumina exports to Russia due to the significant role Aughinish Alumina plays as a supplier to European industry.      “In my view, it is highly likely that lumina exported from Ireland is being used in the Russian military and that these exports have increased since 2022. It is also now clearer that the beneficial owner of the company is still a pro-Putin oligarch. If this is confirmed, the Irish government must urgently work with our EU partners to close off these exports, stop supplying the Russian war machine and divert the company’s supply chains,” Ireland’s MEP Barry Andrews said.      The Irish government is finalising an investigation that began following The Irish Times’s report on Aughinish Alumina’s role in shipping alumina to Russia. Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin, said the report would be completed and shared with Brussels officials soon. It is expected that the commission will re-examine alumina in its next round of sanctions on Russia, following receipt of that report.      On Thursday, (9 July) the country’s Minister for Enterprise, Peter Burke, confirmed he will have his department’s report into whether Aughinish Alumina products are ending up in Russian military equipment “within the next 10 days”. He did point out that, since the war in Ukraine began, the Irish government has never requested that any sanctions not be imposed on Aughinish Alumina. “We have never asked for any leeway. We have never lobbied on their behalf, and I have heard in some outlets suggestions that the Irish government was in their corner in key fora in European contexts. That is not true,” Burke added.