World News: EU chief takes U-turn over Russian oil ban – Gulf Digital News
World News: EU chief takes U-turn over Russian oil ban – Gulf Digital News
WASHINGTON: European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen has performed a U-turn over a ban on Russian oil, saying that it would be wiser to continue imports.
In an interview broadcast on US news channel MSNBC, she said yesterday that the EU would do more damage to Russia by continuing to buy Russian oil than via an embargo.
“What we also always have to do is find the right balance between not hurting our economy too much, because this is the strongest leverage we have against this Russian aggression, [President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression,” she said.
The European Commission president said there was a need to think strategically about how the EU approaches the topic of Russian oil. If the EU completely cut off Russian oil immediately, she said, Putin might be able to take the oil that he does not sell to the EU to the world market and sell it for more, filling his war chest.
Von der Leyen would not say how long it would be before a full embargo could be implemented.
“Over time, what we do is get rid of the overall dependency of Russian fossil fuels, all three of them, and never to go back,” she said.
Her hopes that the
Select Sector 
Select Country 
