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Member states need unanimity to ban all oil imports from Putin’s country
The 27 member countries of the EU will continue negotiating during the week to try to achieve the necessary unanimity to ban all Russian oil imports to the EU, whether raw or refined, after this Sunday Hungary maintain its reservations at a meeting convened in Brussels at the level of ambassadors to try to unlock the sixth sanctions package for the war in Ukraine.
The meeting is over whitout deal after an hour and a half of debate in which it was recorded that Hungary, governed by the ultra-conservative populist Victor Orbán, traditional ally of Vladimir Putin, holds tailored reserves and claims “more guarantees” about supply alternatives or compensation to break with the Russian flow, various diplomatic sources have indicated.
Contacts “at all levels will continue at the beginning of the week” with the aim of reaching “as soon as possible” an agreement to carry out the sixth package of sanctions, add other European sources, who insist that the pending issues are not so much “political” as “technical”.
Seizure
The proposal provides for an embargo on all imports of Russian oil to the European Union for any way, with a period of six month transition in the case of crude oil and eight for refined products.
The exception provided for Hungary and Slovakia, more dependent on that oil, could delay a year its application complicated the negotiations because the term was insufficient in the eyes of these countries, which want to delay it until 2024, and because other partners requested that differentiated treatment, something that Czech Republic it has already managed to consolidate in the text for itself.
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In any case, the Europeans remain determined to reach an agreement “At the beginning of the week” because they consider that technical negotiations and contacts between capitals have already allowed “very important advances” and it remains to conclude the work that resolves the reserves of the partners with great dependence on the pipeline supply from Russia.
This new round provides for other measures such as expanding the list of people and entities sanctioned for their responsibility for war crimes or also disconnect Sberbank and two other entities from the Swift banking system, although these elements do not pose obstacles in the negotiation.