Germany swears EU countries to embargo

«End the war and go home!» That was Robert Habeck’s answer to a journalist’s question in Brussels what his message to Russia was. The German economy minister met his colleagues on Monday for an extraordinary meeting of EU energy ministers. And his statements to the media then culminated in the aforementioned sentence.

Habeck speaks plain language

Habeck spoke before the meeting with remarkable clarity for such an occasion. “We have met the requirements to be able to support an embargo on Russian oil,” he said.

For the time being, after some hesitation, Berlin is no longer the brakeman when it comes to reducing Russia’s most important source of income – oil exports. And when Germany moves, the European Union usually moves too.

Other countries can no longer hide behind Germany. “With us, there will be no natural gas or oil embargo against the Russian Federation,” Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said with conviction before the EU summit in March.

But now Vienna has also given in. “Austria is ready to consistently support an oil embargo if the Commission and the Member States decide to do so,” said Leonore Gewessler, Minister for Climate and Energy, on Monday.

Exceptions for Hungary and Slovakia are conceivable

This brings countries like Hungary and Slovakia into focus. According to the Statistics authority Eurostat between 75 percent and 100 percent of their oil imports from Russia. This also applies to Bulgaria and Finland. These states are likely to have particular problems with an oil embargo.

So left Zoltan Kovacs, a spokesman for the Hungarian government, on the short message service on Monday Twitter announce that Hungary does not support sanctions on Russian gas and oil. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is likely to want to make his approval dependent on concessions. It is conceivable that he called for leniency in the proceedings recently initiated by the EU Commission against Hungary for deficiencies in the rule of law.

However, economic problems seem to be more important. Habeck said that countries with greater adjustment difficulties must be taken into account, as long as everyone makes their contribution. It can therefore be assumed that different transition periods for the countries should pave the way to consensus.

The EU’s oil embargo should therefore only be a matter of time. “We will only talk about natural gas,” said French Minister Barbara Pompili, who chaired the meeting in Brussels as part of the six-monthly rotating presidency of the EU Council.

The EU Commission around President Ursula von der Leyen will probably propose the embargo in the next few days as part of the sixth sanctions package. This should also include the largest Russian bank. The EU has so far spared Sberbank sanctions because it plays an important role in paying for energy imports.

However, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin, only Gazprombank (in Switzerland) should be responsible for paying the bills for natural gas, which is still not subject to an embargo. And this should remain excluded for the time being.

But the energy ministers are aware that every EU country will ultimately meet the same fate as Poland and Bulgaria and that the Kremlin can turn off their gas supply at any time.

For this reason, preparations have long been underway as to how the EU states could help each other if the worst comes to the worst. Habeck offered the affected countries deliveries from Germany. Furthermore, the European infrastructure should be expanded and, for example, the Iberian Peninsula should be connected to the Central European natural gas pipeline network, said the German minister.

A natural gas pipeline is also scheduled to connect Greece and Bulgaria by June. We also talk about joint purchases and storage. But the real tool, said the Green Habeck, is becoming independent of fossil fuels.

“We will hurt ourselves”

And he made it clear what the embargo also means for Europe: “We will harm ourselves,” said Habeck. The point of sanctions is that European society bears the burden. The move will lead to higher energy prices, higher inflation and burdens on the economy.

“And we, as Europeans, are ready to take it to help Ukraine,” said Habeck.

Nevertheless, one must force oneself not to be guided by emotions. The sanctions should be well thought out, for example to prevent Russia from earning more due to higher prices despite lower volumes sold. Or that poorer countries are being pushed into Putin’s arms because they can no longer afford higher oil prices.

But Germany and other EU countries have already reduced their dependency and the oil embargo has actually already begun, Habeck concluded.