(Brussels) A draft embargo on oil and petroleum products purchased from Russia will be submitted to EU member countries on Tuesday, but the measure still raises reservations, several European officials and diplomats told AFP. .
Posted at 9:51 a.m.
The European Commission has finalized its proposal for a sixth round of sanctions against Moscow to cut off funding for its war effort against Ukraine. It provides for a gradual cessation of European purchases over a period of six to eight months until the end of 2022, with an exemption for Hungary and Slovakia, two landlocked countries totally dependent on deliveries by the Druzhba pipeline, which will be able to continue their purchases from Russia in 2023, said a European official.
“The whole replacement process will take several years, so I will insist on this exemption,” Slovak Economy Minister Richard Sulik told the TASR daily on Monday.
This derogation is problematic, because Bulgaria and the Czech Republic also want to benefit from it, explained diplomats informed of the discussions led by the Commission.
“There are countries that will not be able to bear it”, including Bulgaria, which depends almost 100% on Russian oil, Prime Minister Kiril Petkov warned on Sunday.
“We must avoid the contamination effect, everyone will want exemptions. We will have to find the right solutions,” said a European official.
Commissioners are due to adopt the proposal on Tuesday at their meeting in Strasbourg, on the sidelines of Parliament’s plenary session. It will then be communicated to the ambassadors of the Member States who will begin to study it.
No communication from the Commission is planned before President Ursula von der Leyen speaks to MEPs on Wednesday, several sources said.
“I don’t know if the adoption of the proposal will be possible by the weekend,” German Energy Minister Robert Habeck said on Monday after a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels.
“Unanimity is necessary, nothing is guaranteed. Each new package of sanctions against Russia is more difficult to adopt, because it imposes political choices on each member state, ”explained the European official.
Tax on tankers
“We will not vote for sanctions that would make it impossible to supply Hungary with oil or gas,” Hungarian Finance Minister Peter Szijjarto warned on Tuesday.
“This is not a political decision. […] it is a real question of supply for us, because it is currently impossible to make Hungary and its economy work without Russian oil”, he justified.
According to Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs, 65% of the oil and 85% of the gas used by Hungary comes from Russia.
“Ideally everyone would do the same thing at the same time, but if two countries need more time to stop buying, that’s not so bad,” said a European diplomat.
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 and the bill amounted to 80 billion dollars, indicated the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
In addition to the progressive embargo, the Twenty-Seven are also examining immediate measures such as a tax on transport by tankers, according to the European official.
This new sanctions package also provides for the exclusion of other Russian banks from the Swift interbank system, Josep Borrell said on Monday. Seven Russian establishments have already been banned from Swift by the EU.
The largest Russian bank, Sberbank, which represents 37% of the market, will be part of it, according to several diplomatic sources.