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Refinery in Schwedt: "We still don't have a solution"
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
According to Federal Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), there is still no agreement on a possible oil embargo against Russia.
Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) spoke out in favor of an embargo on Sunday evening, but government representatives from Hungary are against it.
According to the Reuters news agency, there could therefore be exceptions for Slovakia and Hungary in the EU sanctions package.
An import stop, which was also confirmed by Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), would probably trigger higher prices or supply bottlenecks in Germany.
Nevertheless, such an embargo is manageable for Germany.
The share of Russian oil in German oil consumption has fallen from 35 percent to 12 percent since the beginning of the war.
A longer transition period?
In the past, however, Hungary and Slovakia in particular had spoken out against an embargo on Russian oil.
"Hungarian stance on an oil and gas embargo has not changed: we do not support it," a government spokesman in Budapest replied in an email to a Reuters query.
Reuters also reports that two EU officials are talking about possible exemptions or a longer transition period for the two countries.
The EU Commission, headed by Ursula von der Leyen (CDU), wants to present the new EU sanctions package by Wednesday at the latest.
A large part of the Russian oil for Germany flows through the refinery in Schwedt, which is controlled by the Russian Rosneft group and is supplied via a pipeline.
"We still don't have a solution for the refinery in Schwedt," said Habeck.
Continuous deliveries cannot be guaranteed.
However, that does not mean that Germany is slipping into an oil crisis.
A problem, according to Habeck, could be that an embargo could increase the price of oil and result in Russia earning more despite fewer oil deliveries.
"Then we traded in lemons," he said.
jlk/Reuters