European Union member states should be able to reach an agreement on an import ban for Russian oil under certain conditions on Monday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said, several hours before the start of a summit of EU leaders.
“I think it will pass with certain derogations”, Petkov said about plans for an embargo on Russian oil imports.
“Overall it should pass, depending on some individual characteristics and criteria that member states may have.”
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EU leaders moving towards deal on Russian oil ban
"We're going towards a deal on a sixth package of sanctions," French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday (May 30) as he arrived at a meeting of centrist leaders ahead of the summit.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte echoed similar sentiments.
According to a new draft of the summit conclusions, the 27 nations will agree that Russian oil imports into EU countries will be banned, though with a temporary exemption for crude delivered by pipeline.
The text seen by Reuters - which may still be revised again - would confirm an agreement on seaborne oil sanctions, with pipeline oil supplied to landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to be sanctioned at some later point.
However, the leaders gathering in Brussels in the afternoon will not finalise the terms for that temporary exception, the text suggested.
Instead, they will ask diplomats and ministers to find a solution that would also ensure fair competition between those still getting Russian oil and those cut off.
Some EU leaders poured cold water on Monday on any prospect for a comprehensive deal at the summit, with Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas saying it was more realistic to expect an agreement next month.
"I don't think we'll reach an agreement today. We'll try to reach an agreement by the summit in June, I think this is the realistic approach right now," Kallas said.
The next summit is scheduled for June 23-24.
Bulgarian PM Petkov’s party inches closer to Renew membership
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov attended a pre-summit meeting of the liberal ALDE political party in Brussels on Monday (30 May), heralding the future European political affiliation of his party ‘We continue the change’.
‘We continue the change’, a new anti-graft political force in Bulgaria, was the surprise winner of the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria on 14 November. On 13 December, Petkov formed a four-way coalition government, ending months of political crisis.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Petkov said it was “a pleasure to sit at the same table” with politicians such as French President Emmanuel Macron, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, Belgium’s Alexander de Croo and Luxemburg’s Xavier Bettel, and hear them say that they would like his party to become part of their family.
Asked if there were any conditions regarding the candidacy, Petkov said he had raised only one condition – that declarations about zero tolerance with respect to corruption be enforced not only at the European “but also at the local level”.
“There should be a new standard for European political families, so we should not keep our eyes closed to local corruption, pretending at the Brussels level that everything is OK”, he said.
It was a veiled reference to the Movement of Rights and Freedoms (DPS), a Bulgarian party that is a member of ALDE and the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.
DPS is currently in opposition in Bulgaria and one of its lawmakers in the Bulgarian parliament, wealthy businessman Delyan Peevski, was sanctioned last June by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the US Magnitsky Act.
“I am very glad that both Rutte and Macron said: yes, this is the new Europe, Europe of rule of law, Europe without corruption”, Petkov said.
Asked when his party will join ALDE, Petkov said that “what took place today was a very warm invitation” and the next step would be a discussion on ALDE membership within his party.
He declined to say whether a condition for ‘We continue the change’ to enter ALDE would be if DPS left.
“I would ask the question differently: What should DPS do to align with this new standard, how would they defend people from the Magnitsky list to be in their leadership, sitting on the first rank of the National Assembly,” he said.
Petkov said the issue concerned not only DPS and ALDE but the functioning of the European political families in general.
