Slovakia has threatened to veto the EU’s latest sanctions on Russia, warning that the proposed measures would cripple its energy supply and push the country into crisis.
Writing on social media on Wednesday, Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country would not support the latest sanctions package unless “the European Commission provides [Slovakia] with a real solution to the crisis situation that Slovakia will find itself in after the complete cessation of gas, oil and nuclear fuel supplies from Russia.”
The pledge came after the Central European country’s parliament voted to veto any European Union sanctions that would harm the national interest.
On Tuesday, June 10th, the European Commission proposed slashing the global oil price cap on Russian exports (lowering it from $60 to $45 per barrel) as well as banning the use of Nord Stream infrastructure for gas deliveries as part of the newest round of sanctions aimed at increasing pressure on Moscow.
The move comes before next week’s G7 summit in Canada, where Western allies are expected to put pressure on U.S. President Donald Trump to take a firmer stance against the Kremlin.
EU countries will start debating the sanctions proposals this week, which require unanimity in the bloc for approval.
Fico’s stance, consistent with his sovereigntist political credo, does not stem from some sort of Russophilia. Slovakia, like Hungary, continues to be heavily dependent on Russian gas and oil supplies, in part because the EU has been unwilling to invest in the construction of alternative supply routes for decades, as demonstrated, for instance, by the failed Nabucco pipeline project.
Until last month, Slovakia supported EU sanctions. However, restrictions on the importing of Russian fuel for Slovakian nuclear power production would be a step too far.
While Brussels blames Hungary and Slovakia for undermining sanctions on Russia, it has quietly excluded Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its latest package—yet again. The reason is simple: Western EU countries have repeatedly blocked any ban.
The three main culprits are Belgium, France, and Spain, which collectively import over 90% of all the Russian LNG that arrives in the EU, reaching new records since the beginning of the war.
Compared to the pre-invasion baseline in 2021, EU imports of Russian LNG have gone up by over 50%, reaching a record high of nearly 25 billion cubic meters in 2024. With prices also skyrocketing, partly due to the sanctions on pipeline gas, this means the EU has paid around €7 billion for Russian LNG just in 2024, or over €30 billion in total since the onset of the war.
While mainstream media tried to portray Brussels’ failures to ban Russian LNG in the past as a consequence of Hungarian and Slovak vetoes, neither of those countries has been importing or using it, and repeatedly stated that they would support any measure put forward against it.
