(Finance) – On the embargo on Russian oil white smoke in the night at the European summit. At the end of a long negotiation and several times close to being wrecked, the leaders of the 27 save the unity of the Old Continent with a ploy that satisfies Viktor Orban and provides adequate guarantees to landlocked countries.
The agreement, in fact, provides for an immediate embargo on oil it arrives from Russia to the EU by sea while postpones the stop to crude oil transported through the Druzhba pipeline. It will be up to the Sherpas to analyze this last point “as soon as possible”, as the text of the conclusions makes clear.
The road remains uphill but at least it is traced. To bend the last resistances of Hungary and its neighbors, the inclusion in the conclusions not only of the exemption for oil arriving in the EU via pipelines but also of a footnote according to which Brussels undertakes to introduce “emergency measures” in the event of an interruption in the supply of energy by Moscow. In fact, Budapest but also Prague and Bratislava they obtained in writing that in the event of retaliation by the Kremlin they will be helped by the other member countries. The exemption period for oil via pipeline will be discussed in the coming days but is not expected to be short.
A good result considering that Orban had arrived in Brussels on a war footing and had attacked the Commission head-on: “If we find ourselves in this difficult situation, it is because it has moved irresponsibly”. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, connected by videoconference, urged his European colleagues to “do not divide” and to approve the sanctions “quickly”
(Photo: © andreykuzmin / 123RF)