Orban criticized for blocking sanctions
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Due to the position of Hungary, the EU is unable to break the impasse on proposals for an embargo on Russian oil.
On Monday, EU leaders will gather for an extraordinary summit. Serious issues related to the war in Ukraine are on the agenda. The main problem is the EU’s unsuccessful attempts to ban the import of Russian oil.
Month of trading with Hungary
It has been almost a month since European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced her proposals.
“It will be a complete ban on the import of all Russian oil, crude and refined, by sea and by pipeline,” she said in the European Parliament.
This was supposed to be followed by an orderly phase-out of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022 within six months.
However, the sixth package of EU sanctions, which provides for the rejection of Russian oil, has not yet been agreed upon, largely due to the position of Hungary.
Other landlocked countries – Slovakia and the Czech Republic – have also asked for more time due to their dependence on Russian oil.
However, the main obstacle is precisely the position of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who compared the impact on the Hungarian economy of a ban on Russian oil with an atomic bomb. He wrote to the European Council that he did not even want to discuss this issue next week.
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EPA
Protest against the position of Hungary
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Sanction swing
Diplomats are annoyed but admit that with soaring energy prices, some countries will not protest strongly against blocking the import ban.
The hard-line countries insist that Europe should stop paying Russia billions of euros, which they call “blood money”.
However, one gets the feeling that Ursula von der Leyen hastened to announce the impending rejection of Russian oil without doing the necessary preparatory work.
However, both she and the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, predicted this week that an oil deal could take place in the coming days.
Previous packages of sanctions, including a phased embargo on Russian coal, were quickly negotiated by the EU countries. Officials spoke with pride about how the EU has shattered stereotypes of a sluggish and tortuous decision-making process in Brussels on any issue.
But in a letter this week, the Hungarian leader warned Charles Michel that discussing an oil embargo “will only highlight our internal divisions.” Orban believes that phasing out Russian oil will require “a complete reorganization of our oil refining capacity.”
In other words, it will be very expensive, which has raised suspicions that Orban is really just inflating his worth and trying to shake more money out of the EU. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, not without optimism, points out that Hungary, in fact, is in a “position for negotiations.”
However, the funds recently allocated to support the EU’s energy transformation come from a chest that Hungary does not yet have access to.
This is all part of a financial tug-of-war between Brussels and Budapest, in addition to accusations that Orban is destroying democratic institutions in Hungary itself.
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