EU Trade Commission says it needs "more time" to assess the situation.
On Thursday, July 25, the EU countries did not support the call of Hungary and Slovakia, which insist on the repeal of Kyiv's decision to block the transit of Russian oil.
The Financial Times writes about this.
The publication notes that the attempts of Budapest and Bratislava to draw Brussels into their dispute with Kiev have been futile. The European Commission “slowed down” their request to urge Ukraine to lift new sanctions against the Russian oil company Lukoil.
“They [Hungary and Slovakia – ed.] asked the European Commission on EU trade policy to start consultations on a trade agreement with Ukraine. However, Valdis Dombrovskis, the EU Trade Commissioner, said that Brussels would need more time to collect evidence and assess the legal situation,” the newspaper writes.
Diplomatic sources for the FT reported that during yesterday's meeting of EU trade representatives, 11 countries supported Dombrovskis' position, while Budapest and Bratislava did not receive a single vote of support.
One of the sources explained that the trade agreement with Ukraine includes a security clause, according to which Kyiv has the right to disrupt supplies under certain circumstances.
“The timing of this call [from Hungary and Slovakia – ed.] is especially ironic given that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has deeply irritated most of his EU partners in recent weeks by unilaterally lobbying for a peace plan in Ukraine during visits to Russia and China without Brussels' approval,” the authors of the article noted.
Recall that Slovakia and Hungary sounded the alarm over Ukraine's tightening sanctions against Russian oil giant Lukoil. Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico called the restrictions senseless, while Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called them “incomprehensible and unacceptable.”
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