BRUSSELS - After months of discussions, EU governments still have not reached agreement on a body-wide ban on buying Russian oil.
Hungary in particular said t cannot afford to shut off the Russian oil that supplies its refineries through the huge Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, whose name means "Friendship."
Ahead of the summit, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck expressed fears that EU unity was "starting to crumble". Draft conclusions, seen by Reuters, indicated there would be little in terms of new decisions. read more
But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said that "there will be an agreement in the end", with a deal on the next sanctions package by Monday afternoon.
Since the Russian February 24 invasion, which Moscow said it did in order to protect Russian-speaking people in Ukraine's easternmost provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, European Union nations have put in place an ever-stronger set of sanctions against Russia, including stopping the Russia-to-Germany Nordstream 2 oil pipeline and stopping natural gas purposes.
