The proposed EU ban on Russian oil imports is facing a veto by several EU member states, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrel told Le Figaro.
According to Borrell, several EU members have already pledged to block any collective effort to ban Russian oil, and that coming to an agreement would be difficult.
The High Representative did not expect future sanctions to have a significant impact and stated that there were no new proposals regarding restrictions on Russian oil and gas.
The EU has not come to an agreement regarding restrictions on Russian energy imports, whether it would be taxes, replacing them with supply from other countries, or an outright ban,
Last week, US treasury secretary Janet Yellen warned the EU against an immediate ban on Russian oil.
"Europe clearly needs to reduce its dependence on Russia with respect to energy, but we need to be careful when we think about a complete European ban on say, oil imports," Yellen said.
Today, crude oil prices have declined below $100 per barrel for the first time in 2 weeks:
According to EU officials, the main opposition to a total oil embargo comes from Germany, which imports a significant amount of crude oil from Russia, alongside other oil importers. However, even if all EU members manage to agree on an oil embargo, it would take months to implement it. Russia supplies more than 4 million barrels of oil per day - its removal from the market would send prices skywards once again.
