07/04/2026 (Agence Europe) – Following a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Saturday 4 April, his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico urged the European Commission to lift the “absurd” sanctions banning gas and oil imports from Russia. In a post on the social network X, he also called for dialogue with Moscow to be resumed and for Member States’ gas and oil reserves to be replenished from “all possible sources, including Russia”. A Commission spokeswoman explained on Tuesday 7 April that the EU was not deviating from the path it had embarked upon to get rid of Russian fossil fuel imports, and that the proposal for a regulation on the Russian oil ban would be presented shortly. Publication was originally scheduled for 15 April, but has been postponed to a later date. (PLD)