Bratislava (dpa-Afx)-Slovakia threatens to block planned new EU sanctions against Russia with a veto. The left-wing national Prime Minister Robert Fico wrote on his Facebook page on Tuesday evening: “The Slovak Republic does not support the prepared 18th sanction package against the Russian Federation if the European Commission does not offer it a real solution to the crisis situation in which Slovakia comes by complete adjusting the deliveries of gas, oil and nuclear fabrics from Russia.”
Already on Thursday, the parliament in Bratislava had called for the country’s government officials to vote against planned further sanctions in the future. These would cause economic damage to Slovakia, the reasoning said. However, the decision was not considered binding.
Dependence on Russian raw material deliveries
So far, Fico had repeatedly publicly criticized individual EU sanctions because it damaged Slovakia more than Russia. In contrast to Hungary Conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Fico and other Slovak government representatives, despite their criticism, have so far been agreed with all sanction decisions against Russia without exception. For this, Bratislava as well as Hungary and initially also the Czech Republic from the EU received an exceptional permit from the sanction regulations. However, this should fall with the planned new sanction package.
The EU and NATO-Land Slovakia, which bordered on Ukraine, has so far been as dependent on Russian raw material deliveries in Europe. The fact that the Ukraine attacked by Russia at the beginning of the year set the through line of Russian gas through its territory to several EU countries led to a dispute with the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Hungary, Slovakia supports an accession to the Ukraine to the European Union – but not to NATO./CT/DP/Stw