{"id":1264160,"date":"2025-07-17T10:04:52","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T07:04:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/fico-challenges-eu-slovakia-will-not-support-sanctions-without-revising-gas-plan\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T10:04:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T07:04:52","slug":"fico-challenges-eu-slovakia-will-not-support-sanctions-without-revising-gas-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/fico-challenges-eu-slovakia-will-not-support-sanctions-without-revising-gas-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Fico challenges EU: Slovakia will not support sanctions without revising gas plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that his country will not support the 18th package of European Union sanctions against the Russian Federation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is stated<\/a> in an official letter he sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.<\/p>\n

In the document, the head of the Slovak government sharply criticized the EU’s plans to completely stop importing Russian gas from 2028. According to him, such an initiative, which is envisaged by the REPowerEU program, will have catastrophic consequences for the Slovak economy, household consumers, and the overall competitiveness of the European market.<\/p>\n

“My position as Prime Minister on this issue is consistent and should not be surprising to anyone,” Fico said.<\/p>\n

Since Slovakia does not have the right to veto the proposed changes regarding gas, but views them as sanctions in nature, Fico links the consideration of REPowerEU with the decision on a new sanctions package.<\/p>\n

“We consider this proposal as a sanctions proposal, and therefore naturally link it to the proposal for the 18th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation. Therefore, we expect that the vote on the 18th package can take place only after the significant risks associated with REPowerEU in the field of gas supply from 2028 are resolved,” the appeal says.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister also noted that there is no support for this initiative in Slovakia’s political environment – both among the ruling coalition and the opposition. At the same time, he said, representatives of business circles are also critical of the plan.<\/p>\n

“There is not even the slightest consensus on the Slovak political scene regarding the acceptance of the content of your letter, and representatives of the business community also express extremely negative assessments. It is also paradoxical that your proposal is not supported even by opposition parties, which generally agree with the cessation of Russian gas supplies after January 1, 2028,” he noted.<\/p>\n

Fico also expressed doubts about the compensation mechanisms proposed by the European Commission, calling them “too vague.”<\/p>\n

In conclusion, he called on the European Commission to continue consultations with Slovakia, in particular on the political interpretation of the commitments set out in the EC letter of July 15. Until the dialogue is completed, Bratislava will insist on postponing the vote on the sanctions package, the Prime Minister concluded.<\/p>\n

Recall that two members of the union: Slovakia and Malta, oppose the approval of the 18th package of EU sanctions against Russia.<\/a><\/p>\n

As reported, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that his country would block any European Union sanctions against Russia if they threatened national interests.<\/a><\/p>\n

In addition, Fico stated that his country would request that the vote on the new package of European Union sanctions against Russia be postponed until the issue of gas supplies is resolved.<\/a><\/p>\n

Also follow \u201cPryamim\u201d<\/strong> on Facebook<\/a> , Twitter<\/a> , Telegram<\/a> , and Instagram<\/a> .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that his country will not support the 18th package of European Union sanctions against the Russian Federation. This is stated in an official letter he sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In the document, the head of the Slovak government sharply criticized the EU’s plans to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":1054934,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76871,76872,76885],"class_list":["post-1264160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2","category-news-feed","category-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1054934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}