EU debates watering down Russian oil ban in face of Hungarian opposition
The EU is debating whether to water down a ban on Russian oil imports to placate Hungary’s leader, Viktor Orbán, who is blocking the latest European sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
Senior EU diplomats holding a special meeting on Sunday were deadlocked over a compromise plan that would see the bloc ban Russian oil arriving in tankers but allow pipeline imports, a proposal that would allow Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to continue being supplied via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline that runs through Ukraine.
More than three weeks after the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed a complete ban on Russian oil imports by the end of the year, the EU is stalled on the plans. Hungary, which is heavily dependent on Russian oil, has said it needs five years and billions of euros to upgrade its refineries.
The row threatens to overshadow a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday, formally dedicated to discussing economic, political and humanitarian support for Ukraine and the crisis in global food supplies.
EU ambassadors will meet on Monday morning in a fresh attempt to find a compromise on the oil embargo. “It might not work, it might work, but I think we have a duty to try it,” a senior EU official said. Excluding pipelines from EU sanctions would protect one-third of Russian oil that comes to the bloc, preserving a valuable source of revenue for Moscow.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is due to address EU leaders via video link on Monday, criticised the bloc last week for its failure to come to an agreement on the oil embargo. “Look at the number of weeks the European Union has been trying to agree on a sixth package of sanctions against Russia,” he
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