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It is unrealistic at the moment to impose sanctions on Russia over gas supplies, President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday evening when asked about the possible extension of sanctions against the Russian Federation.
He stressed that the European Union is determined to phase out energy imports from Russia.
"The principle that we have always followed when we decided on packages of sanctions was that these sanctions have, first of all, the strongest effect on Russia, not on us, and then it is clear that we cannot apply sanctions that are, after all, harder to bear for our states rather than Russia. There have been all sorts of pros and cons, the fact is that there has been no concrete, formal proposal for a package of energy sanctions, but yes, there have been discussions, but we know very well that in the European Union there are states that depend relatively little on Russian gas or Russian oil, but there are states that depend almost entirely on Russian gas and oil, and then it is clear that it is not realistic at this time to impose sanctions on this area. But on the other hand, we already made the decision at Versailles, a week ago, to give up energy imports from Russia gradually and as soon as possible, but this change of suppliers cannot be made overnight, it will take months or in some cases even years, but we are determined to do so, as we are determined to give up more and more fossil fuels and switch to renewable energy," the head of state said.
As for the recent statement made by President Vladimir Putin in which the Russian president announced that states that were not friendly with Russia should pay for gas in rubles, Klaus ZIohhanis said "Contracts are contracts and I don't think they will go further along that line."
"The measures I have just stated are: the phasing out of imports of gas and oil from Russia and the switch to other suppliers, while at the same time reducing the European Union's dependence on these fossil fuels, namely gas, oil and the replacement with renewable or in our case, of Romania, for example, with nuclear, but very importantly, President Biden said that in the United States will increase the production of gas and oil, so that it can provide for Europe these resources, until, of course, renewables or nuclear power are developed well enough to phase out," Iohannis said.
President Klaus Iohannis is attending a European Council meeting on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday, the head of state attended the extraordinary NATO summit. US President Joe Biden also attended both meetings.AGERPRES
