Hungary and Slovakia get the nob about Russian oil

Published 4 August 2024 at 16.26

Foreign. The European Commission has rejected a request for help from Hungary and Slovakia after Ukraine imposed sanctions against Russian oil supplies to the two EU countries.

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TwitterShare< p>After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, the EU gradually introduced sanctions against Russian oil imports. Some member states, which were dependent on Russian oil, were granted exemptions in conjunction with a requirement to seek alternative import routes.

However, at the end of June, Ukraine introduced its own sanctions against the Russian company Lukoil's oil transports to Hungary and Slovakia. Concerned about energy shortages, the two countries asked for help from the European Commission and requested a so-called urgent consultation with the Commission.

According to the European Commission's spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz, however, there is no immediate risk to the security of supply and urgent consultation is assessed therefore not necessary. He points out that the crude oil from Lukoil has been replaced by other suppliers and that the Janaf oil pipeline via Croatia is a possible alternative, writes Europaportalen.

The EU Commission has asked Hungary and Slovakia to prove that their oil supplies have indeed been stopped.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to stop diesel exports to Ukraine, something Ukraine calls “blackmail”.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, for his part, criticized the European Commission's decision and called it “a scandal “. He pointed out that it is ultimately the EU and not Ukraine that is behind the sanctions against Lukoil and accused Croatia of being an “unreliable transit country”.