EU leaders meet in Brussels in the midst of impasse on Russian oil ban
EU leaders are flying to Brussels to meet in a two-day extraordinary summit centred on the Ukraine war, energy dependency and defence investments.
The agenda’s meeting, however, is set to be overshadowed by the protracted negotiations around a proposed EU-wide ban on Russian oil imports.
It's been almost four weeks since Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, unveiled a proposal to phase out all Russian oil products by the end of the year.
The embargo was designed to target both seaborne and pipeline imports.
But soon after her announcement, several member states, including Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, raised concerns and asked for tailor-made exceptions to have more time to adapt their refineries and cushion the economic impact.
Several rounds of intense negotiations have failed to deliver a breakthrough, with Hungary emerging as the main and most vocal opponent.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asked that the measure be removed from the summit's agenda, but the issue will become impossible to avoid if no agreement has been reached by the time leaders sit around the table.
"Discussing the sanctions package at the level of leaders in the absence of a consensus would be counterproductive," Orbán wrote in the letter addressed to European Council President Charles Michel. "It would only highlight our internal divisions without offering a realistic chance to resolve differences."
Meanwhile, Ukraine's patience is wearing thin with foreign affairs minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeting that the sixth package of EU sanctions "needs to be approved as soon as possible, oil embargo included".
EU sanctions require the unanimity of all 27 member states.
The latest draft being circulated among ambassadors
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