EC advises Hungary, Slovakia to ditch Russian oil

INA-  SOURCES

European Commission advises Hungary and Slovakia to ditch Russian oil and look for alternative sources in response to a complaint that Ukraine was blocking supplies from Russia, the Financial Times reported, citing a letter from EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
„Hungary and Slovakia should actively diversify away from Russian fossil fuels”, the European Commissioner said in a letter to Budapest and Bratislava, the newspaper reported.
He added that at a meeting of representatives of all EU member states last week "a significant number wondered why Hungary and Slovakia had not yet explored alternative options".

Earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó announced the termination of oil supplies from "Lukoil" through Ukraine on the "Druzhba" pipeline. Slovakia also stopped receiving oil due to the fault of the Ukrainian side. According to Bratislava, this happened due to the fact that Lukoil was included in the sanctions list in Ukraine.
On July 22, Slovakia and Hungary notified the EC of the decision of the Ukrainian authorities. On Thursday, a representative of the European Commission said that these quantities of oil were compensated by other suppliers. In this regard, the EC refused to hold urgent consultations on this matter.
The situation with the supply of oil to Europe through Ukraine is a crisis for the recipients, but it does not depend on Russia, said the press secretary of the president Dmitry Peskov. The Kremlin expressed doubts about the possibility of dialogue with Ukrainian oil transitors.



SOURCES: FAKTI