French Foreign Minister Urges EU To Quickly Adopt Next Package Of Sanctions Against Russia

The sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which proposes among other points an embargo on Russian oil imports, should be adopted as soon as possible, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Tuesday

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2022) The sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which proposes among other points an embargo on Russian oil imports, should be adopted as soon as possible, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on Tuesday.

Colonna was appointed as the new French foreign minister on Friday. She previously served as France's ambassador to the United Kingdom.

On Tuesday, she made her first official trip to Berlin to hold talks with her German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, ahead of the special meeting of the European Council on May 30-31. The ministers are expected to discuss Russia's military operation in Ukraine and the political, military and humanitarian dimensions of the crisis, along with the food security situation.

"We must boost the support for Ukraine in the long term and on all fronts: financial, economic, military, and humanitarian. We must also adopt as quickly as possible the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, which involves phasing out Russian oil... We hope that we will be able to do this quickly," Colonna said at a joint press conference with Baerbock.

Earlier in the day, the Financial Times newspaper reported that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote a letter to European Council President Charles Michel, saying that his country could not support sanctions against Moscow without receiving details on the relief measures for Budapest if the oil embargo is put in place.

"Discussing the sanctions package at the level of leaders in the absence of a consensus would be counterproductive... It would only highlight our internal divisions without offering a realistic chance to resolve differences. Therefore, I propose not to address this issue at the next European Council," Orban was quoted as saying by Financial Times.

Earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the sixth package of sanctions against Russia. Among other points, it proposes banning Russian oil imports. The package needs to be unanimously approved by all member states to take effect.

Member states have still not reached an agreement on the sixth package of sanctions due to objections from Hungary and Slovakia. Orban earlier described the potential embargo on Russian oil by the European Union as "tantamount to atomic bomb" for Budapest and that Hungary needs five years to diversify its energy supplies.