The European Commission may spare Hungary and Slovakia from an embargo on buying Russian oil, now under preparation, wary of how dependent the two countries are on Russian crude, two EU officials said on Monday.
The Commission is expected to finalise on Tuesday work on the next, and sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia over its actions in Ukraine, which would include a ban on buying Russian oil, exports of which are a major source of Moscow's revenue.
The oil embargo is likely to be phased in anyway, most likely only taking full effect from the start of next year, officials said. EU countries have paid Russia nearly 20 billion euros since Feb. 24, when it invaded Ukraine in what Moscow calls a "special military operation", according to research organisation the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Slovakia and Hungary, both on the southern route of the Druzhba pipeline bringing Russian oil to Europe, are especially dependent, receiving respectively 96% and 58% of their crude oil and oil products imports from Russia last year, according to the International Energy Agency.
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