Discussions over the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia continued on Tuesday 10 May at several levels.
While the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, hoped that the difficulties would be resolved by the time the Foreign Affairs Council takes place on 16 May, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, said on LCI that an agreement was possible “within a week”.
A video conference meeting between EU leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had been announced for Tuesday, but a European Commission spokesperson, Eric Mamer, said it would now take place when sufficient advances had been made with the technical work.
On Monday 9 May, following a meeting in Budapest with Mr Orbán, Ms von der Leyen announced that she would convene such a meeting with regional actors with the intention of strengthening regional cooperation on oil infrastructure.
“We have made progress, but more effort is required”, she said. Ms von der Leyen’s and Mr Orbán’s teams are working to identify solutions for issues relating to the security of Hungary’s energy supply. Mr Mamer made it clear that the discussions between the President and the Prime Minister had not been about timelines, but had rather more focused on the issues at hand, including issues to do with energy infrastructure. After the meeting, Hungary reiterated that it could not support the sanctions package until the country’s concerns were addressed.
On LCI, Mr Beaune said that “there are two ways out of the derogations: the deadline for some countries that, objectively, are facing difficulties since 100% of their oil supply comes from Russia, and then guarantees regarding alternative supplies”. “These are the two parameters we are working on”, he added. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)