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Slovakia criticized on Wednesday the European Commission’s roadmap to phase out imports of all kinds of Russian energy by 2027, particularly natural gas, claiming that it is “economic suicide” that will hurt the EU more than Russia.
The European Union’s executive arm, the European Commission, on Tuesday unveiled a roadmap to fully end EU dependency on Russian energy. The roadmap will see a gradual removal of Russian oil, gas, and nuclear energy from the EU markets in a coordinated and secure manner as the EU transitions to clean energy, the Commission said.
For gas, the Commission proposes to cease all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027 by improving the transparency, monitoring, and traceability of Russian gas across the EU markets. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas will be prevented and spot contracts (for immediate payment) will be stopped by the end of 2025, according to the roadmap.
However, Slovakia, which is one of the few EU member states still receiving Russian gas, says that the EU plan is “unacceptable” in its current form, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday.
“This is simply economic suicide to go to the point where neither gas, nor nuclear, nor oil, everything must end just because some new Iron Curtain is being built between the Western world and perhaps Russia and other countries,” Fico said, as quoted by Reuters.
While Slovakia agrees with the idea to reduce EU dependence on energy from third countries, it thinks the roadmap as-is would only lead to higher energy prices that would be another major hit to the bloc’s competitiveness, which has already been severely eroded since 2022.
The EU has reduced the share of Russian gas imports, from 45% of all gas imports before 2022, down to 18% now, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the end of April.
Hungary also slammed on Wednesday the EU plan to phase out gas imports. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban continues to maintain close ties with Russia and Putin, and Hungary still receives Russian gas via the TurkStream pipeline through the Balkans.
