DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) – European Union heads of state and government are unlikely to reach an agreement to impose an embargo on Russian oil at the extraordinary meeting of the European Council on May 30-31, said estimated Tuesday Ursula von der Leyen.
“I don’t think the summit is the right place for this topic,” the European Commission president told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Ursula von der Leyen added that discussions with member states were ongoing.
The European Commission has proposed to gradually impose an embargo on Russian oil by the end of the year for most member states, while granting deadlines for some states including Hungary.
In a letter addressed to the European Council, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, indicated that the extraordinary meeting scheduled for next week should not address the subject of the embargo on Russian oil.
Hungary, Moscow’s closest ally in the EU, conditions its abandonment of Russian crude oil on the payment of financial compensation. Brussels needs all member states to approve the embargo in order to be able to implement it.
Budapest estimates that it would need several hundred million euros to modernize pipeline and refining infrastructure to be able to do without Russian oil, while a complete modernization of its energy network would cost billions of euros.
The new French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, on the other hand, showed herself to be more optimistic about an agreement between the Twenty-Seven on a sixth package of sanctions against Russia, including an embargo on Russian oil.
During a press conference in Berlin with her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, she felt that the reservations would be lifted quickly.
(Report Sabine Siebold and Jan Strupczewski, French version Matthieu Protard)
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