German Minister: Russian gas embargo is “poison” for German society
Ban Russian gas will immediately lead to job losses and seriously affect the German economy, the country’s Labor Minister said.
Embargo is a “poison” for Germany
The impact of Russian gas embargo with the German economy and society shared by Labor Minister Hubertus Heil in an interview with Funke news agency published over the weekend.
“We should gradually become independent of gas imports, but imposing an immediate embargo would complicate the situation as prices go higher and lead to job losses. So we have to avoid it,” he warned.
Minister Heil noted, the labor market in Virtue, despite being heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, is still stable. If drastic measures such as cutting off Russian gas are taken, the German labor market situation will worsen.
“However, in the event of an immediate gas embargo, we would be in a completely different economic and social situation,” said Hubertus Heil, the German Labor Minister, noting , the Russian gas embargo will be “poison to (Germany) society”.
Together with the countries EU On the other hand, Berlin is working to phase out Russian energy. However, the German government has repeatedly stated that it cannot cut off Russian gas immediately because it will lead to an economic and industrial crisis.
Germany is heavily dependent on Russian energy, buying about 25% of its oil and gas from Russia. However, under the current strategy, Germany can completely replace Russian coal and oil before the end of this year and switch from Russian gas to alternative suppliers by 2024.
The EU disagrees
European Union (EU) leaders gather on May 30 to show solidarity with Ukraine but divided over whether to target Russian oil in the new package of sanctions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the leaders of 27 EU countries via videoconference on the evening of the same day. The Ukrainian leader has repeatedly asked the EU to target the Russian energy sector.
However, Hungary is leading a group of countries including Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria, which are dependent on Russian oil and cannot afford the immediate implementation of these sanctions. Hungary imports more than 60% of its oil and 85% of its gas from Russia. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stressed that the oil embargo should not be discussed at the summit.
The EU has imposed five packages of sanctions against Russia following Russia’s military operations in Ukraine. Western sanctions packages have targeted more than 1,000 people, including Russian officials and billionaires, as well as covering many fields, including banking, coal…
Package punish Russia The EU’s Friday was announced on May 4, but the issue of the Russian oil embargo has not been decided by the bloc. Ahead of the summit, officials suggested that a solution could be reached by targeting oil transported by ships.
“If we target oil that comes by sea, we will get at least two-thirds of our exports, maybe more,” said a senior EU official, who asked not to be named. Hungary and Slovakia depend on Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline since Soviet times.
The main problem of targeting sanctions on Russian oil transported by sea is that EU countries such as Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands that are most dependent on this form of transportation will suffer from high oil prices while Hungary will still suffer from high oil prices. buy cheaper oil from Russia, AP pointed out.
Experts failed to reach an agreement on such a move over the weekend but continued talks ahead of the summit.
The two-day summit in Brussels will also focus on the EU’s continued financial support for Ukraine. A support package of 9 billion euros ($9.7 billion) is likely to be agreed along with military assistance and war crimes investigations.
Problem Food Security will be discussed by the EU on May 31, with leaders encouraging governments to speed up their support for Ukraine’s exports of grain and other products.
at Blogtuan.info – Source: laodong.vn – Read the original article here