As the European Union undergoes another round of sanctions against Russia, attention nationally has turned to the Aughinish Alumina refinery in County Limerick. Once celebrated as a success story of Irish industry, the plant now faces growing questions over sanction enforcement.
Scrutiny over the Aughinish Alumina plant in Limerick has been building over the past number of weeks as it was revealed.
Built in 1978, the plant has been touted as an Irish industrial success story, employing hundreds and contributing millions to the local area.
The plant came under Russian ownership in 2007 when it was acquired by Rusal, the second largest aluminium company in the world. The company was founded by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is subject to EU sanctions, including an asset freeze and travel ban.
In March of this year, it was revealed through an investigation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project that the refinery had indirectly supplied sanctioned Russian arms manufacturers. Since these revelations, MEPs have voted on the 8th of July in favour of a proposed ban on alumina exports to Russia.
The controversy comes as EU member states negotiate a 21st package of sanctions against Russia. Discussions have been postponed until the 22nd of July, leaving the existing $44.10 a barrel price cap in effect until the 23rd of July.
The proposed sanctions package targets around 250 additional individuals linked to Russia’s war effort, while expanding restrictions on banks and vessels involved in circumventing oil sanctions.
Despite the package’s broad support, maintaining a united front has become more difficult among the 27 member states, a vital aspect of any implementation of the sanctions.
The implementation of any sanctions requires unanimity from all states, and where Hungary’s former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán used to be the least conforming, this latest negotiation has seen Austria and Greece raise objections.
Austria now seeks a deal which would see the Raiffeisen Bank be compensated for what it deems to be the ‘illegal €2.44 billion expropriation of its Russian operations.’ This deal would require the seizure and sale of €2.1 billion of frozen Russian assets in Austria; the property belongs to a company owned by the same owner of Rusal, Oleg Deripaska – a beneficiary of Raiffeisen’s expropriation.
Austria says a significant amount of the funds would be invested into the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Greece, on the other hand, has concerns over previous restrictions relating to the trade of Russian liquefied natural gas for which a ban was agreed to in October of 2025, thus protecting the shipping company Dynagas owned by Greek tycoon George Prokopiou, which has specialised in the transportation of Russian cargoes. Dynagas has transported more than 10mn tonnes of Russian liquid natural gas since the start of 2025 on 11 vessels, according to the calculations of the Financial Times. Greece fears that the 21st package would result in Dynagas being forced into a sale of its vessels to ‘non-Western actors’.
As negotiations are set to resume on the 22nd of July, the debate surrounding Aughinish Alumina illustrates the broader challenge facing the EU: enforcing sanctions against Russia while maintaining consensus among member states with competing economic interests.
