Orbán asks Michel by letter not to talk about the veto on Russian oil at the next European Council

BRUSSELS, 24 May. (EUROPE PRESS) -

The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, has requested by letter to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, that the possible veto of Russian oil not be discussed at the extraordinary meeting of Heads of State and Government next week, which It would leave the approval of the sixth package of sanctions and its scope up in the air.

Hungary, the main opponent of the sanctions on Russian crude oil, considers that there are still key details to be finalized in the European Commission's proposal, for example in relation to the potential aid it would receive to compensate for the current energy dependency.

Michel and Orbán already spoke on Monday by videoconference, a step prior to the letter sent this Tuesday and whose reception has been confirmed by sources from the office of the President of the Council, who continues consultations with the rest of the European leaders before closing the agenda of the summit .

In said letter, Orbán points out that, given that there is not yet a minimum consensus among the Twenty-seven on oil sanctions, for the issue to come up at the next summit would be "counterproductive", according to the content collected by the newspaper 'Financial Times '.

"It would only serve to underline our internal divisions, without there being a realistic opportunity to resolve the differences," says the Hungarian leader, who advocates postponing the debate to the next Council, scheduled for June 23 and 24.

Orban misses more details in the Brussels package of measures dubbed REPower EU, which aims to reduce Russia's dependence on fossil fuels by two-thirds this year to eliminate imports from Moscow by the end of the decade.

Specifically, it states that "there are no indications on the modalities and the calendar to finance the urgent investments that are needed to replace Russian oil." Orbán has already said that Hungary would need at least five years to disengage completely and, in the letter to Michel, he warned that it could have "serious supply problems" if sanctions with the current framework prosper.

Also on Monday, the Hungarian Justice Minister, Judit Varga, took advantage of a meeting of European ministers in Brussels to insist that before addressing the debate on the adoption of sanctions, Budapest wants "solutions" to the supply needs it will have if it is cut the flow with Russia.

The idea that the debate is not yet ripe to contemplate the agreement has also been pointed out from the Davos Economic Forum by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, who has agreed with Orban that the next summit of heads of State and Government is not the forum to explore the technical solutions with which to unblock the situation.

"I don't think it's an appropriate issue to be resolved in the European Council because we are discussing something very technical", Von der Leyen indicated in an interview with the digital newspaper 'Politico', where he recalled that Hungary's main problem is the lack of coastline because it means that any alternative supply to the Russian can only arrive by pipeline and preparing the infrastructure to increase the flow requires significant investment.

For this reason, the head of the Community Executive, who presented almost a month ago the proposal to impose a gradual embargo on Russian oil until all imports are cut off in a few months, has wanted to make it clear that she does not expect the matter to reach the summit, because he doesn't want to "create false expectations".

"An element that is political may be discussed and it is how much the other 26 are willing to grant as investments to Hungary, but the first and greatest difficulties are the techniques that we are discussing now," he said in the interview.