Bratislava, April 5 – Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called on the European Union (EU) to resume dialogue with Russia and lift sanctions on Russian energy raw materials, following a phone call with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, local media STVR reported.
"The EU, and especially the EC (the European Commission), should immediately resume dialogue with Russia and ensure a political and legal environment that allows individual member states and the EU as a whole to replenish their missing gas and oil reserves, and to enable the supply of these strategic raw materials from all possible sources and directions, including Russia," Fico said in a social media post on Saturday (local time).
He urged the "unnecessary sanctions" banning gas and oil imports from Russia to be lifted, and called for "decisive steps" to resume the operation of the Druzhba pipeline, according to Xinhua, quoting STVR media.
According to Fico, the call with Orban confirmed that the large energy crisis cannot be addressed solely at the national level. Fico said that the governments of Slovakia and Hungary are protecting their national economies and citizens from the "ideological blindness and incompetence" of the EC.
Hungary and Slovakia have recently faced disruptions in oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline, which transports Russian crude oil to Central Europe via Ukraine.
This situation has heightened tensions between the two countries and Ukraine, while raising concerns about the potential impact on regional energy supplies.
Meanwhile, earlier in March, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced that his government would gradually halt gas supplies to Ukraine, citing what he described as a continued blockade of crude oil deliveries to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline.
In a video message posted on social media ahead of the weekly cabinet meeting, Orban said that Ukraine has been blocking the pipeline for around 30 days.
"As long as Ukraine does not supply oil, it will not receive gas from Hungary," he said, adding that Ukraine had targeted infrastructure linked to Hungary's southern gas supply route.
Orban said that Hungary would retain gas volumes domestically and increase storage levels to safeguard its own energy security.