On Tuesday, 8 March, a group of 97 MEPs from all the [political] groups in the European Parliament (but mostly from the EPP and ECR groups) published an open letter calling on the European Union and its Member States to immediately impose an embargo on oil, gas, and coal imports from Russia.
The letter points out, “It is our moral obligation to brave people of Ukraine—to implement full embargo on the Russian oil, gas and coal import now!”
In the signatories’ opinion, the EU is currently in an “ambiguous moral situation”, since it is supplying arms to Ukraine while continuing to pay Russia hundreds of millions a day for its fossil fuel imports.
“In 2020 alone, with much lower prices for gas and oil back then, the EU has paid Russia EUR 64 billion for the import of energy resources. [...] [T]his covers the entire Russian military budget, which in 2020 amounted to EUR 62 billion,” notes this group of MEPs.
Member States divided
While the United States—which is much less dependent on Russian fossil fuel imports than the EU—announced an embargo on Russian oil and gas on Tuesday, 8 March, the EU has not yet made a decision due to divisions among Member States on the issue.
“[W]e are unable to follow the example of the United States”, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán notably emphasised on Wednesday, 9 March, after an informal meeting of the European Council in Versailles. “Hungary would be disproportionately affected, as 85 per cent of all gas consumed in Hungary comes from Russia” (see other news).
The countries that are the most reluctant to enact an embargo also include Germany and Italy, which are heavily dependent on Russian gas as well.
“I wouldn’t support an embargo on imports of fossil fuels from Russia”, German Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck had declared on Thursday, 3 March, after a meeting with German industry leaders. “I would even speak out against it because we would threaten the social peace in the republic with that”.
Russian reaction
For his part, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak lamented in a statement published on 7 March that certain European politicians were calling for an embargo.
“European officials are once again trying to shift the problems and failures of their own energy policy of recent years onto Russia,” he notably declared, while maintaining that Russia “has nothing to do with the current price spike and volatility in the market”.
Moreover, he warned that Russia was prepared to impose an embargo on gas transit via Nord Stream 1.
He went on to add, “If you want to cut off supplies of energy resources from Russia, go ahead; we are ready for that”.
See the MEPs’ letter: https://aeur.eu/f/p1
See Mr Novak’s statement: https://aeur.eu/f/p2 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)