Steven N.EU foreign ministers met on Monday in Brussels to work out the sixth round of sanctions against Russia, which would include an embargo on the country’s oil.
European Commission President Urusla von der Leyen announced the sanctions package earlier this month, but Hungary immediately protested the move, saying it could not buy oil anywhere else but Russia.
The European Commission recommended that Hungary be exempted from the embargo if it votes for the sanctions, initially until the end of 2023, and then until the end of 2024. This means that Hungary could continue to purchase Russian oil for another two and a half years, but that offer is still is not enough to satisfy Budapest.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was also in Brussels at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, where he told reporters afterwards:
What I heard was clear, overwhelming support for the sixth package for oil embargo. In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say that there is only one country that continues blocking [the] introduction of the oil embargo.
Although Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, and Greece had previously opposed certain elements of the oil embargo and lobbied for compensation and exceptions, it became clear over the weekend that Hungary was the only member state to strongly resist the package. Kuleba, therefore, must have been referring to Hungary, writes 444, although he didn’t name it. [444]
