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What about the oil embargo now?

2022-05-11T17:48:51.093Z


At the beginning of the week, a European embargo on Russian oil supplies seemed feasible. Now a Hungarian veto is threatening. How likely is an agreement? Could a German solo effort help?


»The Hungarian government will support the oil embargo if it does not affect us«

With this formulation, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Wednesday invalidated all the EU's hopes for a joint embargo on Russian oil.

An agreement still seemed likely on Monday, also because Germany had been surprisingly committed to this measure.

The decision-making, which has been made more difficult again, reveals the well-known difficulties of the EU, whose regulations for such projects require unanimity.

But even without a Hungarian veto, a European oil embargo would have compelling details that could further fill Putin's war chest.

»One of the central problems with this oil embargo is that oil, unlike gas, is relatively easy to transport.

I don't necessarily need a pipeline for that.

So that means the Russians rent tankers and then transport them to India, for example.

That has already happened and a large number of these tankers come from the EU," explains Ralf Neukirch, SPIEGEL correspondent in Brussels.

»Greece, for example, is a country where many shipping companies are registered, which then transport this oil.

And the Greeks also say: We cannot go along with an absolute ban on Russian oil, we cannot afford it economically.

«

So simply not buying Russian oil anymore is not that easy.

However, the central point for the difficulties in installing an embargo at all lies in the functioning and mechanisms of the EU.

In order to implement such projects, the consent of all member states is required.

And their representatives listen first to the concerns of their own people.

»For most people in the EU, including Germany, the bearer of democratic legitimacy is still the nation state.

If I'm dissatisfied with something, I usually don't look to Brussels, but to my government," says Ralf Neukirch. "The question is whether there really has to be a right of veto.

In many cases it may not have to be.

But changing that is very difficult.«

Can the current initiative of the »Conference on the Future of Europe« change that?

Does it make sense for Germany to go it alone in the oil embargo at European level?

And what does the EU climate plan have to do with the war in Ukraine?

Ralf Neukirch talks about this in this episode of the SPIEGEL podcast "Eight Billions".

Listen to the current episode here:

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-05-11

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