The European Council reached a political agreement on imposing an embargo on Russian oil imports to the EU by the end of the year.
“A ban on Russian oil exports to the EU has been agreed. This covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia, cutting off a huge source of funding for its war machine,” European Council President Charles Michel said on Twitter.
In a press conference he gave in the early hours of Tuesday, Mr. Michel said that oil imports through pipelines are temporarily excluded from the embargo.
Thanks to the voluntary commitment of Germany and Poland to suspend their imports through the Druzba pipeline, the embargo will eliminate “about 90%” of European Russian oil imports “by the end of the year”, stressed the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Layen in the same press conference. He added that for the remaining 10%, the Council would return as soon as possible.
The exclusion of imports through the Druzba pipeline, which supplies Hungary in particular, has allowed the Budapest veto, which has been blocking the implementation of the 6th EU sanctions package against Russia for several weeks, to be lifted.
In addition to the embargo on Russian oil, the 6th package of sanctions against Russia includes the exclusion from the international financial system SWIFT of three Russian banks, in particular Sberbank, the ban on broadcasting of three Russian state-owned television stations in the EU and sanctions against about sixty people responsible in particular for war crimes in Ukraine.
The final agreement on the embargo on Russian oil and the 6th package of sanctions is expected to be approved within a week by the Permanent Representatives of the Member States and to be adopted by the European Council.
The European Council also agreed that the EU should provide emergency macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. It is not known whether the aid will only include loans or grants. The Commission will present the details of the way of financing next week, Ms. von der Layen said, without going into further details.
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