The European Commission has advised Hungary and Slovakia to give up oil from Russia and look for alternative sources in response to a complaint that Ukraine is blocking supplies from Russia, the Financial Times reported, citing the text of a letter from EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó earlier said that Russian oil supplies through Ukraine via the Druzhba pipeline had stopped. Stopped receiving oil from Russia and Slovakia.
“Hungary and Slovakia should actively pursue diversification away from Russian fossil fuels,” Valdis Dombrovskis said in a letter to Budapest and Bratislava.
He said that at a meeting of EU member state representatives last week, “a significant number … questioned why Hungary and Slovakia have not yet explored alternatives.”
The European Commission declined to hold “urgent consultations” on Kiev’s blocking of oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia. European politicians referred to the “absence of an immediate threat to the energy security of the European Union”.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Western ideas of a new world order hypocrisy. According to him, they are aimed solely at preserving the neocolonial system, showing their essence in the form of “hypocrisy, double standards and claims”.