ADVERTISEMENTA new veto landed in Brussels.
Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, Confirmed Thursday That he would continue to vote on the next package of sanctions that the European Union wishes to impose on Russia in response to the large -scale invasion of Ukraine.
With sanctions subject to the rules of unanimity, Fico’s decision makes it impossible to approve the proposal, which is considered to be ready to go after the diplomats spent the last day to polish the technical details in anticipation of official approval.
Interestingly, Fico’s opposition has nothing to do with the sanctions themselves. It relates to an entirely different question: the so-called REPOWERE roadmap.
The roadmap envisages an elimination of all imports of Russian fossil fuels, including pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG), at the end of 2027. The European Commission revealed the roadmap in May and presented the legislation project in JuneBased on gradual prohibitions on short -term and long -term gas contracts.
“Russia has repeatedly tried to make us sing by stopping its energy supplies,” said Ursula von der Leyen, president of the committee.
“We have taken clear measures to extinguish the tap and put an end to the era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe for good.”
As a country without coastline with linked links with Russian fuels, Slovakia immediately – and noisily – protested against elimination, warning that it would increase prices and endanger competitiveness. Hungary, which is in a similar situation, join the resistance.
A burning point of discord was the committee’s strategy to supervise the proposal as a commercial and energy policy, which means that it will only need a qualified majority to pass. Until now, the executive has chosen sanctions, a foreign policy tool, such as the reference option to remove imports from Russian fuels, such as coal and oil. Hungary and Slovakia were exempt of the permanent ban on Russian crude oil.
While the sanctions against gas remain elusive due to long -standing disagreements among capitals, the Commission has taken matters into hand and considered a creative bypass solution to guarantee the prohibition of Russian gas ultimately was born.
The trick exasperated Slovakia, which has resorted to opposing its veto to the 18th pack of sanctions as a last effort to extract the concessions that it would not get otherwise.
Silver color
Fico confirmed his veto after held a bilateral meeting with Von Der Leyen on the sidelines of an EU summit in Brussels. In the days preceding the summit, commission officials seemed optimistic according to which a compromise would be reached and that the 18th package of sanctions would move away before the end of the month.
But then the Slovak has lowered their foot.
In a video message published on his Facebook account in the middle of the summit, Fico broadcast a large list of grievances and reservations concerning elimination, indicating that it was open to an agreement with Von Der Leyen but at a higher price than expected.
“It is regrettable that we are heading on this path, because it is clearly an ideological proposal,” he said. “This will harm us, unless an agreement is concluded with the European Commission which would compensate us for all the damage that this proposal could cause.”
The leader checked five numbers that he wants to solve and ideally resolve:
- Transit costs: Fico says that if Slovakia puts an end to gas imports from the Russian pipeline, it will have to spend more money on transit costs to bring alternative supplies from Western countries, North and South, which buy LNG and gas later. Fico wants to guarantee that future transit costs will have the same cost as with Russia.
- Consumer price: Fico claims that the end of Russian gas at low cost, associated with potentially higher transit costs, will increase gas prices for households “by 30 to 50%”, according to estimates by its government.
- Compensation: Consequently, Fico requires “funds to compensate for Slovak households and industry, because none will be able to face this burden”.
- Energy crisis: Fico also wants guarantees to protect Slovakia from an extraordinary peak in the wholesale prices of gasoline, as happened in the energy crisis of 2022.
- Legal proceedings: Finally, the FICO prevents Slovaquian risks faced with a Gazprom trial, the Russian gas monopoly, worth between 16 and 20 billion euros due to the termination of its long -term contract, which takes place up to 2034.
“Therefore, this problem must be solved first,” said Fico at the end of the video.
“Let us define the solution, and it is only then that we can discuss other sanctions packages. If our proposal to postpone the vote is not suitable, the Slovak ambassador will receive a clear instruction to oppose his veto to the adoption of the 18th pack of sanctions.”
Fico noted that he would engage in “constructive negotiations”, with a “special mission” led by the committee planned to go to Slovakia next week.
It is far from clear how the Von der Leyen team would manage to meet their needs, which seem to be worth billions of euros. The multi-annual budget of the block is tense and has a limited space to deal with unforeseen circumstances or, in this case, requests. The proposed deletion does not include an envelope dedicated to EU funds.
Von der Leyen did not address the thorny subject at his press conference at the end of the summit, and the committee did not immediately respond to a comment request.
The officials had previously insisted on the fact that elimination would not produce a strong increase in consumer prices, because the transition from the block far from Russian fuels is already well advanced, with greater diversification of Norway, the United States, Algeria, Qatar, Azerbaijan and the United Kingdom, as well as a faster deployment of cultivated green energy.
“We can, in fact, ensure that this transition will occur so that it does not lead to an increase in prices and certainly not to a situation of supply problems for these countries,” said Dan Jørgensen, European Energy Commissioner, in June.
Jørgensen has also stressed that the prohibitions provided for in the context of elimination would be strong enough to declare force majeure-that is to say events or circumstances which exceed the control of signatories-and protect customers against damages.
“We have deliberately formulated this legislation and used the legal basis which makes it a ban and thus a major situation for the companies in question,” he said.
“This means that they are not legally responsible. It is not the ones who break a contract.”
The reasoning has not fully convinced of experts, who claim that traditional foreign policy sanctions are the most test of the balls to challenge legal proceedings.
