BRUSSELS — Hungary and Slovakia held up progress on new Russia sanctions Monday, saying they wanted to see a separate proposal to ban Russian gas dropped first.
In a statement during a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday, Hungary’s top diplomat, Péter Szijjártó, declared that his country had “blocked” the sanctions package, joining forces with neighboring Slovakia to hold up the measures. The sanctions would be the 18th package since the start of the full-scale invasion.
“This would undermine Hungary’s energy security and violate the Council decision granting us exemption from the Russian oil ban,” he claimed.
The European Commission last week proposed legislation to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027, with some exceptions. Szijjártó said Budapest and Bratislava want to see that policy dropped in exchange for passing the 18th package. The sanctions would penalize the Nord Stream pipelines and outlaw imports of fuel refined from Russian crude in foreign countries like India, China and Turkey.
Formally, new sanctions require the unanimous support of all 27 member countries. However, despite having consistently tried to block new restrictions on Russian energy, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has backed down from vetoing prior packages.
Granted anonymity to share details on closed-door negotiations, a senior EU diplomat told POLITICO, “I don’t read this as a veto. This is something the Slovakians had previously said they would need to discuss, so this doesn’t change anything.”
“I hope the discussions we have today will pave the way for a serious agreement at European Council on Thursday,” the diplomat added, referencing the EU leaders’ summit in Brussels later this week.
A second diplomat confirmed the plan is to hash out a deal at the summit. EU leaders are slated to talk about foreign policy, with support for Ukraine and the proposed Russia restrictions at the top of the agenda.
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