“To be clear: deliveries of crude oil via the Brotherhood Pipeline have continued and there is currently no security of supply issue”, declared the European Commissioner for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, on Friday 23 August. He was reacting to complaints from Hungary and Slovakia that Ukrainian sanctions on the transit of Lukoil crude oil through their territory were affecting their supplies.
On Wednesday 21 August, the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, accused the European Commission of “doing nothing about measures that threaten Hungarian energy security”. The Commission formally denies the accusation and claims to have taken the concerns and warnings seriously since July.
“Ukrainian authorities have confirmed to us that the ongoing transit of crude oil originating from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia is not affected, as Lukoil is not the owner of this oil”, said Valdis Dombrovskis, after explaining that he had consulted all the stakeholders on the current situation.
He added that the European Commission is continuing to look for alternative solutions for Russian crude oil imports.
Hungary, like Slovakia, is exempt from applying the European embargo on crude oil adopted in 2022.
The European Commission claims that this does not prevent these countries from working to find alternative sources of supply. “We have, more broadly, renewed our calls for Member States to expedite their efforts to reduce their dependency on Russian fossil fuels”, concluded the European Commissioner. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)