Hungary has secured a pipeline exemption as EU agrees on partial Russian oil ban, said the Hungarian prime minister.
The embargo which targets Russian crude delivered by sea, has allowed a temporary exemption for pipeline fuel, to win the support of Hungary and other landlocked countries.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted on Facebook following the long day of discussions: “An agreement was reached. Hungary is exempt from the oil embargo!”
We have protected [the government’s cap on household utility bills] and successfully staved off a proposal by the Commission that would have prohibited the use of Russian oil in Hungary,”
Orbán said in the early hours on Tuesday, after the first day of a summit in Brussels.
“We have enough problems already: energy prices are soaring, inflation is high, and all of Europe is teetering on the edge of a global economic crisis because of the sanctions. Under these circumstances, it would have been unbearable for us if we had to run the Hungarian economy with dearer oil, it would have been like a nuclear bomb, but we successfully avoided this,” he said on Facebook.
The landlocked nation led a group of EU states, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Croatia, had voiced concerns over the embargo citing the potential impact it could pose on thier economies.
The Czech Republic has reportedly been granted an 18-month exemption from a ban on the resale of oil products.
Bulgaria has been excluded from the embargo until the end of 2024, according to Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, who said further details would be revealed in a couple of days. He added that the exemption would give his country time to adapt its refineries to process other oil.
European Union leaders agreed Monday to embargo most Russian oil imports into the bloc by year-end as part of new sanctions on Moscow worked out at a summit focused on helping Ukraine with a long-delayed package of new financial support.
EU Council President Charles Michel said the agreement covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia. Ursula Von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive branch, said the punitive move will “effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.”
Michel said leaders also agreed to provide Ukraine with a 9 billion-euro ($9.7 billion) tranche of assistance to support the war-torn country’s economy. It was unclear whether the money would come in grants or loans.
-RT/Ap