BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union foreign ministers will not formally discuss a potential embargo on Russian oil when they meet in Luxembourg on Monday, a senior EU diplomat involved in preparing for the council said on Friday. .
Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for external affairs, had earlier said a ban on oil imports from Russia would be discussed on Monday.
“It won’t be on the table on Monday,” however, declared the senior diplomat.
Germany, Austria, Bulgaria and Hungary have so far been reluctant to deepen discussions on the subject due to their heavy dependence on Russian hydrocarbons.
The senior diplomat stressed that the initiative to submit to the Twenty-Seven a project on Russian oil and gas came from the European Commission.
The European foreign ministers will on the other hand approve on Monday a new financing of 500 million euros for the supply of arms to Ukraine, which will bring this envelope to 1.5 billion since the beginning, on February 24, of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine, the diplomat said.
Russia describes its intervention in Ukraine as a “special military operation”.
(Report Robin Emmott, French version Bertrand Boucey, said by Sophie Louet)