Next EU Sanction Package Will Not Include Gas Embargo - Austrian Chancellor

The European Union will not discuss the gas embargo as part of the next package of sanctions against Russia for the war against Ukraine.

Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria Karl Nehammer said this on Tuesday, arriving on the second day of the summit of EU leaders in Brussels, European Pravda reports.

"Yesterday it was clear, and today I will say again: the gas embargo will not be a topic. Olaf Scholz also made this clear," he told reporters.

"Gas is quite different than oil when it comes to security of supply. Russian oil is much easier to compensate for... Gas is completely different, so the gas embargo will not be a question in the next package of sanctions," he added.

After the first day of the summit, at which the leaders agreed on an oil embargo with the exception of supplies through pipelines, officials and diplomats said it would be even more difficult to stop EU procurement of Russian natural gas.

At the same time, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, assured that the heads of state and government of the EU are committed to fulfilling their obligations taken at the Versailles summit in March to end decades of dependence on Russian energy resources.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said leaders would approach the next round of sanctions in a different way to avoid a deadlock.

"Tonight, I and others asked that when we work on the seventh package, we discuss all the technical issues in advance before starting to discuss what the actual sanctions would look like," Rutte said.

Meanwhile, Russia began to cut off gas supplies to the EU on its own: this week, in particular, Gazprom said it was stopping supplying gas to the Netherlands.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the European Union also overcame the resistance of a number of skeptic states and made a political decision to impose an oil embargo against Russia.

Meanwhile, Ukraine calls on Germany to stop or limit the operation of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to the maximum.