(Brussels) The European Union is preparing to stop buying oil from Russia to sanction the war in Ukraine, but the measure is “complex” and will take “several months”, several European sources said on Friday.
Posted at 10:06 a.m.
“The adoption of measures on oil requires unwinding existing contracts, finding alternatives and avoiding their circumvention. It’s not going to happen overnight. It will take at least several months,” explained a European official involved in the discussions.
“The Commission is considering the options,” he said. Among these, the transfer of payments to a blocked account.
“Restricting demand will increase prices,” insisted several ministers and senior officials interviewed by AFP. “The United States is very sensitive to the price of oil,” said one of them.
“Also, if Russia sells the oil refused by the Europeans to other buyers, the sanction will be useless,” warned another.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday called for diversifying outlets to deliver Russia’s energy resources “to other parts of the world that really need them”.
The Europeans are trying to avoid a circumvention of their sanctions by China and India and have made them understand that it will be “difficult for the EU to accept partners who undermine the sanctions”, specified a European diplomat.
The EU decided on April 8 to stop buying coal from Russia, to close its ports to Russian ships and to ban the export of many goods and technologies.
“For the first time, Europe touched on energy, which was not easy. Oil and gas will follow,” assured one of the officials.
But we must “maintain unity” between the 27, he insisted. Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria are buying their oil from Russia and you have to “convince them to keep them on board”, he stressed.
“We cannot end our addiction overnight,” warned Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korcok.
New sanctions were discussed at the meeting of EU foreign ministers on April 11.
“The European Union is spending hundreds of millions of euros to import oil from Russia, which certainly helps finance this war. We have to put an end to it, even if it creates huge challenges and problems,” said Irishman Simon Coveney.
“Nothing is taboo”, replied the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, believing that “oil is more easily replaceable”.
Russia exports two-thirds of its oil to the EU. In 2021, it supplied 30% of the crude and 15% of the petroleum products purchased by the EU. “The Russian oil import bill was four times larger than the gas one, $80 billion versus $20 billion,” Borrell recalled.