The failure of European negotiations to impose sanctions on Russian oil and gas

EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said last night that EU foreign ministers had failed to agree on a ban on oil and gas imports from Russia. “Of course, talks will continue in this regard,” he said.

The embargo on energy imports from Russia was expected to be part of new EU sanctions against the country.

“In these talks, we first talked about how to ensure the effectiveness of the sanctions imposed and how to prevent a gap in how they are implemented, but at the same time we talked about new measures we could take, including sanctions against Russian oil and gas,” Borrell said.

“We have not decided on the imposition of such sanctions, but we have agreed to continue talks on this issue,” he said.

While the European Union has imposed heavy sanctions on Moscow, its members are at odds over sanctions on Russian oil and gas. The reason for this is that many European countries are heavily dependent on imports from Russia to supply the energy they need.

Hungary has reportedly vetoed a proposal to impose a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, saying it was Hungary’s only option for importing natural gas and that it could not import LNG directly from the United States due to climate change.

Borrell stressed the importance of reducing European countries’ dependence on Russian oil and gas, saying that buying gas from Russia would help finance Russia’s military conflict with Ukraine.

Referring to Germany, he said: “Of course, overnight can not stop 55% dependence on Russian gas; This is because the country has warned of the collapse of its economy behind such actions.

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