EU Member States Searching for Gas and Oil – Who Will Pay the Price of the Economic War?

For many EU member states, May 20 was the deadline for bill payment. Companies which trade gas from Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic have confirmed that they have met their obligations, as per the request of Gazprom and the guidelines from Brussels, without breaking the sanctions. Finland has been left without Russian gas. The Kremlin is not giving up on the request for payments to be made in the Russian currency and says that it will not supply anyone with gas for free.

Following Poland and Bulgaria, Finland too refused to pay for Russian gas in rubles. Gazprom Export notified them that gas deliveries were to stop from Saturday morning.

Helsinki says that Russian gas covers a fifth of their needs and that they have notified their customers that they will secure the energy from other sources. In the upcoming decade, they are counting on American liquefied natural gas.

– Above all, I want to say that the political goal and will have been very unified and clear regarding this since the beginning. We want to free ourselves from Russian energy – says the minister of finance of Finland, Annika Saarikko.

Budapest is warning again – the embargo against Russian oil is unacceptable, because it would destroy the Hungarian economy, which covers 65% of its needs through those imports. They advocate diplomatic solutions to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

– There is a huge pressure on us to approve the decision of the European Union. We are not ready to allow anyone to force Hungarians to pay the price of the war. We are the only country which essentially openly speaks against such measures. In case this ban comes into effect, our economy will be destroyed, because it will be physically impossible to buy enough oil and we can’t allow that to happen – says Peter Szijjarto, the minister of foreign affairs and trade of Hungary, RTS reports.

EU member states are looking for gas and oil that would replace Russian energy. Poland is looking for additional gas in Portugal.

Slovenia, which is counting on the liquefied natural gas from the Croatian terminal on the Krk island, has not managed to rent additional capacities. In an attempt to free itself from dependence on Russian energy, Germany has signed an energy partnership agreement with Qatar.

– We want to change the way we get energy, to become less dependent on Russian energy imports. Energy security is of central importance for us. Germany will develop its infrastructure in order to be in a position where it can also import liquefied natural gas in greater quantities by ships, and Qatar plays the central role in our strategy – emphasized German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The former chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder, a declared Russophile, has resigned, along with another businessman, from his position in the Managing Board of Rosneft, under great pressure of the European public.

The company thanked him for the cooperation, and the resignation followed the announcement by the European Parliament that it would blacklist Schroeder due to close relations with Russian oil and gas giants, RTS reports.

Gazprom

Rosneft

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary

Ministry of Finance of Finland

Annika Saarikko

Peter Szijjarto

Olaf Scholz

Gerhard Schroeder