In Brussels, the EU Council was unable to reach an agreement on the adoption of the 18th pack of sanctions against Russia, designed to hit the Kremlin and reduce its ability to continue the war in Ukraine. The new measures point in particular to the energy and banking sectors, but this time too unanimity was lacking among the twenty -seven. Today, Slovakia, which firmly opposes the new restrictions to block the package. The main knot remains energy: it is on this ground that the clash between Bratislava Brussels is concentrated.
Bratislava blocks EU sanctions against Moscow: “insufficient guarantees”
The Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico rejected the proposal of the European Commission to prohibit the imports of Russian gas starting from 2028, expected in the 18th package of penalties against Russia with tones. In his opinion, the guarantees offered by the EU executive would not be enough to protect the economic and strategic interests of Slovakia.
“The Commission is offering us some guarantees only because we refuse to support the new package of sanctions against the Russian Federation, which requires unanimity,” said Fico at the press conference. The premier announced that he had asked the Slovak representative in the EU to ask for a postponement of the vote, underlining that “the government coalition rejects ‘the imbecile’ proposal of the European Commission to stop the Russian gas flows starting from 2028”.
According to what is said by Fico himself also in a post on Facebook, the letter sent by the European Commission was shared with the leaders of the other Slovak political parties, but was unanimously judged “insufficient” and even “nothing”. Slovakia, he added, will continue to delay the adoption of the new cycle of sanctions until it receives guarantees deemed adequate.
Despite the criticisms, Fico left a glimpse open to dialogue. Prime Minister Slovak said he was willing to negotiate “further guarantees that ensure a certain level of security” for the country, underlining that “the best solution” would be to obtain an exemption that allows Bratislava to maintain the current gas supply contract with Russia until its natural deadline, expected in 2034.
Kallas: “Confident on agreement for new penalties”
The Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, when he was asked why the agreement on the 18th package was not reached, replied: “Ask for Hungary and Slovakia”. On the other hand, the high representative for foreign policy Kaja Kallas, who expressed regret for yet another postponement: “I am really sorry that we did not reach the agreement today”, said at the press conference, reiterating the need to act.
Kallas stressed that the European Commission has accepted the requests made by Bratislava: “Now the ball is in their field, but we must go on. Two months have already passed”, in reference to the current negotiations to adopt the 18th pack of penalties. Estonian diplomatic recalled that the objective of the sanctions is “to deprive the Russia of the means to conduct this war” and has however been confident that a compromise can be found already in the next few hours: “I am convinced that tomorrow we will reach an agreement”.
Estonian diplomatic did not hide the fears for the increase in the use of chemical weapons by Russia. “Surprising but from the beginning of the invasion there have been over 9 thousand cases of attacks with prohibited chemical weapons,” said Kallas, citing the recent report of the intelligence services of Holland and Germany.
Missiles, drones (also Chinese), chemical agents and chloropicrin: here are the prohibited weapons that Russia uses against Kiev
Kallas: “Israel face more for Gaza”
During the same summit, Kallas also addressed a direct message to Israel, soliciting him to intensify the efforts to relieve the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza strip. “Israel must take more concrete measures to improve the situation on the field,” said the number one of European foreign policy, also asking the full implementation of the agreement reached last week between the Jewish State and the European Union. “We will monitor the situation carefully,” he assured. At the moment, however, no hard measure was adopted against Tel Aviv for the serious humanitarian situation in the strip.
