Hungarian Minister of foreign affairs Peter Szijjártó today accused the European Commission of blackmail over the dispute over blocked oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia – two countries that criticize the EU for sending weapons to Ukraine, reported Reuters, quoted by BTA.
Ukraine added the Russian company "Lukoil" on a sanctions list in June and halted supplies through its territory to Hungarian and Slovak refineries owned by the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL.
Hungary and Slovakia last week asked the Commission to pressure Kiev to change its mind.
"More than a week has passed and the European Commission has done nothing," wrote today on "Facebook" Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó. "Despite the threat to the energy security of two EU member states, despite the crystal clear violation of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, Brussels is silent," he added, referring to the agreement with Kiev on the eventual acceptance into the EU.
Scijarto said the commission is either "so weak that it is unable to stand up for fundamental interests" of the member countries, or it created the dispute itself.
In his words, maybe "Brussels, not Kiev, invented all this." The European Commission, not the government of Ukraine, wants to blackmail two peace-supporting countries that reject arms transfers.
The Commission indicated in a written response that after receiving requests from Hungary and Slovakia, it started to collect information.
"The Commission made detailed inquiries to Slovakia and to Hungary in order to establish a comprehensive analysis and addressed the Ukrainian authorities,", the reply reads.
"These questions relate to volumes of current oil transit, legal entities that transport oil through Ukraine and concluded contracts, possibilities for alternative supply routes, as well as the costs thereof," the Commission adds.
Supplies from other Russian suppliers are not affected, Reuters points out.
Amid the deepening dispute, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday that his country would cut off diesel supplies to Ukraine if Kiev did not restore supplies.
The dispute demonstrates the extent to which some EU countries are still dependent on Russian energy more than two years after the bloc decided to freeze oil imports from Moscow following the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to Reuters.
Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are exempted from the ban on importing Russian pipeline oil to give them enough time to find alternatives.