Oil, stop at 90% of Russian crude. During the night, the EU finds an agreement and the leaders of the European Council give the green light to the sixth package of sanctions against Russia for the war in Ukraine: therefore Moscow's oil embargo is implemented, but with several exceptions. The most relevant – from a political point of view – is the exemption of the Druzhba pipeline which made it possible to overcome the resistance of Orbán's Hungary. We will start from January with the blocking of two thirds of imports by ship. Germany and Poland, on the other hand, have also renounced land deliveries since the beginning of 2023.
“Agreement reached to ban export of Russian oil to EU. It immediately covers more than 2/3 of Russia's oil imports, cutting off a huge source of funding for its war machine. Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war." The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, wrote it in a tweet at 23pm on Monday night.
Stop to Russian oil: what the agreement provides
The details will have to be known as the hours go by, but in the meantime the agreement establishes the embargo on Russian oil supplied by sea from the end of the year. A derogation, as mentioned, is envisaged «for crude oil via pipeline» which supplies some countries of central-eastern Europe.
The exception was foreseen to obtain the green light from Hungary. Two other countries that obtain oil via the Druzhba pipeline - Germany and Poland - have pledged not to use it again from the end of the year onwards. In this way the importation of 90% of Russian oil will be blocked, according to estimates by the European Commission and the European Council which has laboriously approved the measures. The extension of the embargo to supplies via pipeline will be discussed "as soon as possible" but a date has not been set.
«Russia is choosing to continue its war in Ukraine. As Europeans, united and in solidarity with the Ukrainian people, we adopted new sanctions tonight,” he wrote on Twitter French President Emmanuel Macron, whose country holds the presidency of the EU Council.
“We cannot imagine that after the conflict our energy policy will go back to the way it was before. What happened is too brutal. We need to move now to change our long-term energy suppliers,” he said the Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, in his speech on Ukraine at the EU summit, pushing in favor of an agreement that would overcome Hungary's resistance. And in the end, Budapest – but also the Czech Republic, which asked for written guarantees and which will be the next president of the European semester and Slovakia – was satisfied. Indeed, in the conclusions of the document that will emerge from the European summit, not only the exemption of oil arriving in the EU via pipelines has been included, but also a note according to which Brussels undertakes to introduce "emergency measures" in the event of interruption of the energy supply from Moscow. In fact, Budapest but also Prague and Bratislava have obtained in writing that in the event of retaliatory measures by the Kremlin they will be helped by the other member countries.
The other measures of the sixth package of sanctions
The sixth package also includes the exclusion from Swift of the largest Russian bank, the Sberbank, the restrictions on three Moscow broadcasters and the inclusion in the EU blacklist of various entities and personalities.
The summit continues today, Tuesday 31 May, with the plan to strengthen the common defense, starting from the European industrial base, and the possible options for unblocking Ukrainian wheat.
Meanwhile, the tug of war on the gas continues. Because Gazprom has announced that it will cut supplies to the Dutch GasTerra starting tomorrow, given that it does not pay in rubles. And Denmark could, again tomorrow, find itself in the same situation.
