EU diplomats failed to reach a consensus on Sunday on the terms of the embargo, but on Monday they were holding new talks to present an agreement for approval by EU leaders at a summit later that day.
A senior EU diplomat told CNN that the bloc was “in the final stages” of agreeing to the terms of an oil embargo, but needed more time to persuade some member states, including Hungary, to join. .
“We understand their special situation, we understand their security of supply problem, we understand their search for guarantees to be able to solve it,” the diplomat said.
European officials first proposed joining the United States and others to ban Russian oil a month ago as part of a sixth package of EU sanctions over the country’s invasion of Ukraine. But the deal has been hampered by the reluctance of some countries, which are particularly dependent on Russian crude oil delivered by pipeline. EU leaders may agree to ban all Russian oil by the end of this year, but offer a temporary exemption for gas pipeline imports, according to a draft of the summit’s conclusions seen by Reuters. An EU official told CNN that banning all oil transported by sea would cover more than two-thirds of Russia’s imports.
Europe is the largest buyer of Russian energy. Russian crude accounted for 27% of the bloc’s imports in 2021, according to Eurostat. That’s about 2.4 million barrels a day, according to the International Energy Agency. About 35% of this was delivered through pipes to the block, according to the IEA.
But pipeline deliveries accounted for a much larger share of Russian oil shipments to Hungary (86%), the Czech Republic (97%) and Slovakia (100%).
Earlier this month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó compared the EU’s proposals for a total ban on Russian oil to an “atomic bomb” for his country’s economy. His government has previously said it would take a minimum of three to five years to stop all imports.
Care must be taken, however, to ensure that exemptions do not unfairly benefit some countries over others, the EU senior diplomat told CNN.
“We have to be very careful in the text of the legal sanctions, which we preserve [EU] internal market everywhere, and that we preserve a level playing field, “said the diplomat.
So far, Europe has maintained a united front against Russia over the war in Ukraine, imposing round after round of economic sanctions, which included a embargo on its coal imports. It also aims to reduce Russian natural gas imports by 66% by the end of this year. But in recent weeks cracks have begun to appear as rising inflation and slow growth plague European economies.
“I’m very concerned about what would make a recession in Europe for the European decision to go ahead and increase sanctions,” said Jason Furman, a Harvard professor who previously served as President Barack Obama’s chief economic adviser. at CNN Business at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.
– Julia Horowitz contributed to the report.