Orban warns no quick deal on EU Russia oil embargo

Hungary has yet to be persuaded to support an EU oil embargo against Russia, and bringing it up at next week’s European summit would be foolish, Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned Brussels in a letter obtained by AFP on Tuesday.

“Looking at the gravity of the issues still open, it is very unlikely that a comprehensive solution could be found before the special meeting of the European Council on 30-31 May,” Orban wrote in a letter to EU chief Charles Michel.

“I am convinced that discussing the sanctions package at the level of leaders in the absence of a consensus would be counterproductive,” said the letter, dated Monday.

Some diplomatic sources have suggested EU leaders might take up the issue at the Brussels summit in order to come to a political agreement to unblock technical talks underway between Hungary and the European Commission.

But Orban — who on Tuesday imposed a new state of emergency in his country citing the challenges of the war in neighboring Ukraine — argued this would only highlight the internal divisions without offering a realistic chance of resolving them.

France currently holds the EU presidency, and an official in President Emmanuel Macron’s office told reporters there might still be time to shift Hungary’s effective veto on the sanctions package before the leaders gather on Monday.

“Different options are on the table,” the official said, suggesting a compromise was close on Hungary’s demand for 800 million euros to fund infrastructure to help wean it off Russian oil and on a four-year exemption from the import ban.

Orban, often the odd man out in EU decision-making, has rocked the bloc’s unity on the war in Ukraine, opposing an embargo on Russian oil proposed by the European Commission in early May.

Landlocked Hungary relies on Russian oil from a single pipeline and Orban insists the proposed sixth package of EU sanctions against Moscow would have a devastating impact on his country’s economy.

Budapest has demanded an exemption from the embargo for at least four years and wants 800 million euros ($860 million) in EU funds to re-tool a refinery and boost the capacity of a pipeline to Croatia.

The EU has offered Hungary, along with nearby Slovakia and the Czech Republic, lengthy exemptions from imposing the embargo and has been locked in talks with Budapest to resolve the stand-off.

Orban’s comments look likely to frustrate Brussels and other EU capitals pushing hard to cut down on European cash flowing to fund Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, told CNBC Tuesday that she aimed to secure the oil embargo within “days,” however she later told Euronews that it would take “a matter of weeks.”

“What we are looking at is one or two member states that are landlocked, so cannot have oil via the sea and need alternatives in pipelines and in refineries, and there we are trying to find solutions,” she said.