Fidesz-KDNP EP group leader Tamás Deutsch and MEP Kinga Gál have called on the EC to stand up against "Ukrainian political blackmail" that they said had put the energy security of EU member states at risk.
The letter said that based on official Ukrainian statements, the country’sxAt the end of July, Ukraine ramped up its sanctions on Russian oil company Lukoil and stopped deliveries of Russian crude to Slovakia and Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline as a result. Deutsch and Gál called on the EC to take the necessary steps so that Ukraine scraps the “unacceptable and unlawful” measures that gravely endangered the energy security of the countries, which were lacking alternative routes to purchase oil. At the same time, they said the step also ran afoul of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement’s regulations on transit deliveries. In such a situation, the EC should be protecting the interests of member states “as a matter of fact”, and “should force the third country to follow the law”, the letter said. The European Commission’s steps, however, had been “inadequate, even permissive in the face of Ukraine’s blackmail”, they said.