After hours of last-minute negotiations – and failure to come to agreement – European Union leaders have agreed to ban more than two-thirds of of all Russian oil imports.
The ban, which President Zelenskiy spent Monday advocating EU leaders for as a show of unity against Vladimir Putin, was heavily resisted by Hungary. Earlier compromises included exempting Russian oil transported through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline for Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia from the EU embargo.
While the ban will put the “maximum pressure on Russia to end the war”, as Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said on Twitter, it will also probably result in a hike in the already high gas prices across Europe, which is heavily reliant on Russian oil.
Agreement to ban export of Russian oil to the EU.
This immediately covers more than 2/3 of oil imports from Russia, cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine.
Maximum pressure on Russia to end the war.
— Charles Michel (@eucopresident) May 30, 2022
We agreed in Versailles to phase out our dependency on Russian gas, oil & coal as soon as possible.
But this requires a plan: This is #REPowerEU.
It has 4 pillars:
• Saving energy
• Diversifying away from ???????? fossil fuels
• Massive investment in renewable energy
• Financing pic.twitter.com/mCKJkByFKu— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) May 30, 2022