(Image source from: reuters.com)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a ban on the Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. She said that the Russian crude oil would be phased out before the end of this year. After this, Hungary rejected the proposal calling it unacceptable while the governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic wanted some more time for the decision to be taken. The European Commission is keen to part ways from the Russian oil gas ever since Russia announced and staged war on Ukraine. EU also decided to reduce the gas imports by two-thirds by the end of 2022. The European Commission now announced to ban Russian oil in the next six months and refined products by the end of this year.

European Commission said that the plan would be implemented in a phased manner. The package has to get an approval from the EU Ambassadors and it would be signed in the next few days. The government of Hungary said that the country would veto it in its current form. The country's spokesperson Zoltan Kovacs told that this would ruin the economy of Hungary. Slovakia's Economy Minister said that they want three year transition period and Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed that they would need time of 2-3 years to tackle the issue. Netherlands and Germany were the biggest buyers of Russian oil last year. The United Kingdom is no longer in the European Commission and it is phasing out the Russian oil. Most of the European countries rely on other countries for fuel supplies.

By Siva Kumar