(Updated throughout with clarifications, further quotes)
BRUSSELS, April 11 (Reuters) – The European Commission is preparing a proposal on a possible embargo on Russian oil, even if this option is not yet unanimous among the Twenty-Seven, ministers said on Monday of Irish, Dutch and Lithuanian Foreign Affairs.
“They are currently working to ensure that oil is included in the next set of sanctions,” said the head of Irish diplomacy, Simon Coveney, on his arrival in Luxembourg for a council bringing together the ministers of foreign affairs of the Twenty- Seven, who must notably discuss the Russian offensive against Ukraine.
“The European Union is spending hundreds of millions of euros to import Russian oil, and this undoubtedly contributes to the financing of the war. We must dry up this financing (…) the sooner the better,” he said. he added.
His Lithuanian and Dutch counterparts also said the EU executive was looking for ways to target Russian oil – which accounts for nearly a quarter of Europe’s crude imports – in an attempt to pressure Russia to stop bombing Ukrainian cities.
“We are examining all the others (sanctions) including targeting energy,” said Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra, echoing the words of the European Union’s High Representative for External Affairs, Josep Borrell, who considered that a European embargo was to intervene “sooner or later”.
The European Parliament adopted last Thursday by an overwhelming majority a resolution calling for an “immediate total embargo”, but this text is not binding.
NO CONSENSUS
In the wake of alleged war crimes committed by the Russian military in towns on the outskirts of Kyiv, including Boutcha, the EU last week adopted a fifth sanctions package against Russia, which includes an embargo on coal imports.
“We are working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports, and we are considering some of the ideas presented by member states, such as introducing taxes or setting up specific payment channels such as a guarantee blocked,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said when presenting the fifth package of EU sanctions.
The establishment of an embargo on imports of Russian oil requires the unanimity of the Twenty-Seven on the principle, as well as on the technical details such as its scope and the timetable for gradual implementation.
Germany – the bloc’s largest economy – but also Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary have so far been reluctant to deepen discussions on the subject because of their heavy dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
On her arrival in Luxembourg, the German Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock, called for “a coordinated plan to gradually and definitively free ourselves from fossil fuels” from Russia, but European diplomats specified that the German authorities were not actively supporting a short-term embargo.
(Report Robin Emmott and Bart Meijer, with the contribution of Paul Carrel; French version Myriam Rivet, edited by Bertrand Boucey)