Hungarian PM says no agreement on EU oil embargo against Russia
Orban says there is "no compromise" and "no agreement" for the time being.
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Hungarian PM Viktor Orban
On the EU's oil embargo against Russia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated on Monday that "there is no agreement at all."
"There is no compromise at this moment at all. There is no agreement at all," Orban declared.
The PM stated that if energy security solutions were discovered for his nation, he would agree to the sixth package of penalties.
The Prime Minister also praised the European Union's plan to exclude Russia's pipeline oil supply from the sixth round of sanctions.
According to Orban, "The pipeline solution is not bad. It’s a good approach, but we need a guarantee that in the event of an accident with a pipeline going through Ukraine, we will have to have the right to get Russian oil from other sources. If we get it, it’s fine."
According to an EU source, the draft of the sixth package of sanctions against Russia includes only an embargo on Russian oil supplied by sea tankers, but pipeline deliveries can continue.
On Sunday, 27 member states of the EU met to discuss the sixth round of economic penalties against Russia, including a historic stop to Russian oil imports, according to EU sources.
Budapest has rejected a proposal to give it two years longer than the rest of the EU to wean itself off Russian oil as insufficient.
It seeks at least four years and 800 million euros ($860 million) in EU money to convert its refineries to process non-Russian petroleum and increase pipeline capacity to neighboring Croatia.
Read next: EU chief: EU failed to agree on 6th package of sanctions
According to the German Economy Minister Robert Habeck on Sunday, the EU's unity after Russia's operation in Ukraine is beginning to "crumble".
“After Russia's attack on Ukraine, we saw what can happen when Europe stands united. With a view to the summit tomorrow, let's hope it continues like this. But it is already starting to crumble and crumble again," Habeck told a news conference.
The EU has struggled to get an agreement on placing an oil embargo on Russia, with several member countries expressing fears that the measure would be disastrous for their economies. Hungary, which gets the majority of its oil from Russia, has been the most vocal opponent of the embargo, equating the potential consequences to "an atomic bomb." Other landlocked countries, including Czechia and Slovakia, have expressed similar concerns about the embargo.
