Everyone believes that Putin must be punished, but the frayed EU cannot agree how

 By Joe Barnes,

BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT

Source - Telegraph Dispatches - 30/05/22

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With the strength of the EU’s next package of sanctions against Russia in a race to the bottom, it has led to some embarrassing admissions over the bloc’s apparent unity.

Robert Habeck, the German economic minister, was one of the first to concede that the EU’s unity was fraying after its 27 national ambassadors failed to broker a deal for a ban on the import of Russian oil.

The row over the long-delayed embargo will take centre stage at Monday’s extraordinary European Council summit in Brussels, despite the issue being only a minor space on the agenda.

It is well known that Hungary has provided the main opposition, leading European officials to agree that exempting deliveries of Russian oil via pipelines could create room for a deal.

Germany leapt on this, insisting if landlocked Budapest is allowed to continue importing through the Druzhba pipeline, then so should the rest of the EU’s nations.

It was on Wednesday, May 4, when Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, announced a “complete ban” on Russian oil.

So almost an entire month later, how did Brussels get itself in such a pickle? One senior EU diplomat argued that the bloc tried to do too much too fast.

“I think we talked about oil under pressure from the Baltics and Poland before having done our homework,” the insider said.

Everyone is in agreement that Vladimir Putin must be punished for his invasion of Ukraine, but there is very little consensus on how to do that through sanctions.

For the EU to agree to its sixth package of punitive measures against the Kremlin dictator, there needs to be unanimity from the 27 member states.

The compromise set to be discussed by EU leaders will “cover crude oil, as well as petroleum products, delivered from Russia into Member States, with a temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline,” according to the latest draft of the summit conclusions.

It is likely they will agree to return to the “temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline as soon as possible”, the document adds.

This version of the EU’s oil embargo isn’t remotely close to the original proposed by Mrs von der Leyen, but most agree that it is necessary to preserve so-called “EU unity” and that “anything is better than nothing”.