BRUSSELS, Belgium
European Union leaders agreed Monday to embargo most Russian oil imports into the bloc by year-end as part of new sanctions on Moscow worked out at a summit focused on helping Ukraine with a long-delayed package of new financial support.
The embargo covers Russian oil
brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by
pipeline, a move that was crucial to bring landlocked Hungary on board a
decision that required consensus.
EU Council President Charles
Michel said the agreement covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from
Russia. Ursula Von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive branch, said the
punitive move will “effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to
the EU by the end of the year.”
Michel said leaders also
agreed to provide Ukraine with a 9 billion-euro ($9.7 billion) tranche of
assistance to support the war-torn country’s economy. It was unclear whether
the money would come in grants or loans.
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s
permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, responded to
the EU’s decision on Twitter, saying: “As she rightly said yesterday, Russia
will find other importers.”
The new package of sanctions
will also include an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals, while Russia’s
biggest bank, Sberbank, will be excluded from SWIFT, the major global system
for financial transfers from which the EU previously banned several smaller
Russian banks. Three big Russian state-owned broadcasters will be prevented
from distributing their content in the EU.
“We want to stop Russia’s war
machine,” Michel said, lauding what he called a “remarkable achievement.”
“More than ever it’s important
to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are
able to be tough,” he added.
Michel said the new sanctions,
which needed the support of all 27 member countries, will be legally endorsed
by Wednesday.
The EU had already imposed
five previous rounds of sanctions on Russia over its war. It has targeted more
than 1,000 people individually, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and
top government officials as well as pro-Kremlin oligarchs, banks, the coal
sector and more.
But the sixth package of
measures announced May 4 had been held up by concerns over oil supplies.
The impasse embarrassed the bloc, which was forced to scale down its ambitions to break Hungary’s resistance. When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the package, the initial aim was to phase out imports of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.
Both Michel and von der Leyen
said leaders will soon return to the issue, seeking to guarantee that Russia’s
pipeline oil exports to the EU are banned at a later date.
Hungarian Prime minister
Viktor Orban had made clear he could support the new sanctions only if his
country’s oil supply security was guaranteed. Hungary gets more than 60% of its
oil from Russia and depends on crude that comes through the Soviet-era Druzhba
pipeline.
Von der Leyen had played down
the chances of a breakthrough at the summit. But leaders reached a compromise
after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged them to end “internal
arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of
Europe.”
The EU gets about 40% of its
natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia, and divisions over the issue
exposed the limits of the 27-nation trading bloc’s ambitions.
In his 10-minute video
address, Zelenskyy told leaders to end “internal arguments that only prompt
Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.”
He said the sanctions package
must “be agreed on, it needs to be effective, including (on) oil,” so that
Moscow “feels the price for what it is doing against Ukraine” and the rest of
Europe. Only then, Zelenskyy said, will Russia be forced to “start seeking
peace.”
It was not the first time he
had demanded that the EU target Russia’s lucrative energy sector and deprive
Moscow of billions of dollars each day in supply payments.
But Hungary
led a group of EU countries worried over the impact of the oil ban on
their economy, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Hungary
relies heavily on Russia for energy and can’t afford to turn off the pumps. In
addition to its need for Russian oil, Hungary gets 85% of its natural gas from
Russia.
Orban had been adamant on
arriving at the summit in Brussels that a deal was not in sight, stressing that
Hungary needed its energy supply secured.
Von der Leyen and Michel said
the commitment by Germany and Poland to phase out Russian oil by the end of the
year and to forgo oil from the northern part of the Druzhba pipeline will help
cut 90% of Russian oil imports.
The issue of food security
will be on the table Tuesday, with the leaders set to encourage their
governments to speed up work on “solidarity lanes” to
help Ukraine export grain and other produce. - AP
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