The European Council is unlikely to come up with a decision on the Russian oil embargo within 48 hours, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.
The European Council has convened a meeting to discuss the situation in Ukraine, energy and food security in the world, Russian oil embargo and the EU defense capabilities on May 30-31 in Brussels.
"One topic that is still open is the sixth sanctions package. We’ve been working very hard and successful with five sanctions packages already. It has never been easy. It’s the same now with the sixth package. The commission and the French presidency have been working intensively in the last days to move forward on this package. We are not there yet, but it has matured for sure. My expectations are no that it will be solved in the next 48 hours, but I’m confident that after, there will be a possibility," von der Leyen said upon arrival to the special meeting of the Council.
Later in the day, EU foreign and security policy chief Josep Borrell said that the EU was making every effort to reach consensus on new sanctions on Monday.
"Another important thing is to discuss about how we make a final deal on the sixth sanctions package. I’m fully confident that we will get an agreement. Yesterday afternoon and today in the morning the COREPER has been meeting, we have been pushing everyone in order to get an agreement today. And I’m very much confident that we will have this agreement," Borrell said.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday that there is no consensus on the issue of oil embargo among the EU member states.
The European Commission announced plans weeks ago to impose a blanket ban on Russian oil but landlocked Hungary has stalled the embargo over concerns it would not be able to make up for the shortfall in oil coming from Russia through pipeline.
