The EU reaches an agreement for a partial veto of Russian oil

by time news

Gazprom billboard in Saint Petersburg. / EFE

The Twenty-seven agree to reduce imports from Moscow, while Gazprom cuts gas supplies to the Netherlands

The leaders of the Twenty-seven met on Monday to provide greater humanitarian and military support to Ukraine, coordinate European defense and give new impetus to the debate on the sixth package of sanctions on Moscow. And they did. At the edge of the early hours of this Tuesday, the European Council reached an agreement to veto 66% of Russian oil imports to the EU, which they hope will rise to 90% by the end of the year.

The discussions on the sixth round of sanctions against Russia had been entrenched since the beginning of May, with the blockade of Hungary, highly dependent on Russian crude. “There is no commitment. We are in a very difficult position because of the European Commission. They have made a proposal without letting the Member States decide. We have to change the approach », assured Viktor Orban at his entrance to the headquarters of the European Council, in Brussels.

But the adaptation of the text presented by the Community Executive made the agreement possible, as announced by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel: “We have agreed to veto imports of Russian oil to the EU. This cuts off two-thirds of the crude coming from Russia and deals a blow to the financing of the Russian war machine,” he wrote on his social media. The embargo will be gradual and will take place over a period of six to eight months.

The war in Ukraine returns to the starting point

The reluctance of Hungary and other Member States such as Slovakia and the Czech Republic have led the Twenty-seven to agree on a partial veto that only affects crude imported to Europe by sea. This would leave out supply through pipelines “temporarily” and would allow the states most dependent on Russian supply to build the necessary infrastructure before disconnecting from Moscow.

This embargo will affect 66% of the crude oil imported from Moscow and will deal a severe blow to the Russian economy, cutting the annual bill paid by the European Union by 50,000 million. In addition, the rest of the measures of the sixth package of sanctions were adopted, which include -among others- the disconnection of SWIFT from the Russian bank Sberbank.

gas outages

This Monday, the energy giant Gazprom announced that the Netherlands will stop receiving Russian gas. The GasTerra company, 50% owned by the Dutch Government, confirmed on Monday that from this Tuesday it will stop receiving the blue fuel supplied by the Russian company by refusing to pay for the service in rubles, as required by Vladimir Putin’s decree -which entered into force on April 1- with which it counterattacks the cascade of international sanctions.

The payment in rubles that Moscow demands implies the creation of a kind of ‘bridge accounts’ in which payments would be made in euros for their subsequent conversion into the Russian currency. A mechanism that, as GasTerra explains in its statement, could violate the sanctions of the European Union in addition to being a formula “with financial and operational risks.”

Poland, Bulgaria and Finland were the first to suffer a gas supply cut from Russia and Denmark; he has also refused to pay in rubles.

themes

Vladimir Putin, European Commission, European Union (EU), Brussels, Europe, Holland, Hungary, Moscow, Czech Republic, Russia, Ukraine, War in Ukraine

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