Some alumina from Aughinish ‘undoubtedly’ supplies Russian military, EU envoy says

The EU’s envoy on sanctions has said alumina produced by Aughinish Alumina in Limerick “undoubtedly” ended up supplying, at least in part, the Russian military-industrial complex.

David O’Sullivan, who was previously the European Commission’s top civil servant, said any action taken on Aughinish Alumina had to be mindful of Europe’s complex supply chains.

“We just have to find the best way of doing it, which doesn’t have unhelpful collateral consequences,” he told an Institute of International and European Affairs event in Dublin, during which he said there was “no doubt the investigative journalists got it right” on the plant’s supply relationship with Russia.

It is understood European Commission officials had privately considered proposing a quota system that would limit Aughinish Alumina’s exports to Russia, giving the Co Limerick plant time to find alternative markets for its material, before Brussels parked the idea.