European Union ambassadors are to debate proposals on restricting Russian access to Europe's capital markets and energy markets.
Ambassadors from the 28 EU nations are expected to agree to add the names of some Russian companies to the bloc's sanctions list.
The meeting comes after the US is weighing further sanctions on Russia over the situation in eastern Ukraine.
The German government has expressed support for EU decisions to introduce further sanctions.
But France has said it will go ahead with the delivery of the first of two new warships to Russia amid protests by the US and UK.
The ship is nearly completed and will be presented in October.
Several nations, including the US and the UK, have been accusing the Ukrainian rebels of shooting down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 with a weapons system provided by Russia.
Moscow has denied the accusation, saying it has not supplied the Ukrainian rebels with the Buk anti-aircraft missile system.
For more on this, we earlier spoke with Dr. Shen Dingli, professor of International Relations at Fudan University.
