EU leaders on Monday night agreed a political deal to impose sanctions on Russian oil imports.
“Agreement to ban Russian oil exports to EU”, tweeted European Council President Charles Michel from a summit of leaders in Brussels. “This immediately covers more than 2/3 of Russia’s oil imports, reducing a major source of funding for its war machine.”
The EU Council has yet to formally agree on sanctions.
The commitment will allow oil exports from Russia’s oil pipelines to the EU to continue temporarily, while shipping is blocked at the end of the year, as announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in early December. ‘this month.
Von der Leyen tweeted that the leaders’ agreement “will effectively reduce about 90% of Russia’s oil imports to the EU by the end of the year.”
Germany and Poland, which could benefit from the gas pipeline exemption, have pledged to close the de facto gas pipeline north of Druzhba, several EU diplomats said.
There is also an agreement to “complete the [closure of the] southern branch as soon as possible, “said an Elysian official. The southern section of the pipeline delivers oil to Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
An EU official said the Czech Republic had obtained an 18-month exemption from the ban on covering the resale of petroleum products.
Hungary has also assured that there is an emergency provision to ensure security of supply if deliveries from its pipelines are cut off, EU diplomats said.
The embargo on Russian oil would be one of the most important steps in Europe to restrict the income of President Vladimir Putin to wage war on Ukraine. But Hungary held back the proposed measure for several weeks, arguing that its economy would be affected by a general ban.
David M. Herszenhorn, Lili Bayer and Giorgio Leali contributed to the report.