Fico: Slovakia will support the conclusions of the EU summit, will not vote for the 18th sanctions package

Bratislava – Slovakia will support the conclusions of the European Council summit, which begins on Thursday in Brussels. Unlike Hungary, it has no problem with the part concerning Ukraine. However, it will warn all partners about the issue of the planned complete halt of Russian gas imports to the EU, with the REPowerEU plan, and until this issue is resolved, it will not vote for the upcoming 18th sanctions package against Russia. Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) stated this on Thursday at a meeting of the National Council (NR) of the Slovak Republic Committee for European Affairs shortly before leaving for Brussels, TASR reports.

“Once again, a situation has arisen where the European Union will not be united, as Hungary has announced that it will not support the part of the text concerning Ukraine. Therefore, this part of the text will only be approved in the EU 26 format. As for the second part of the document, I assume that there will be agreement and the 27 member states will adopt this document,” Fico announced.

The greatest discussion among leaders is expected on the topic of EU competitiveness. Part of the conclusions is to follow the initiative of the European Commission (EC) to adopt a new legislative act, which, among other things, will prohibit the import of any gas from the Russian Federation to EU member states from January 1, 2028. The Prime Minister reiterated that this is a major problem that would significantly harm Slovakia. Before the summit, he was supposed to discuss this topic with EC President Ursula von der Leyen and emphasize that there should be a paragraph in the summit conclusions that takes into account Slovakia’s concerns. However, according to Fico, this text is only a framework and does not yet say anything about what can be done for Slovakia in this situation.

“Please, let’s take this very seriously. Slovakia has gone from a country that was at the beginning of the pipeline to a country at the end of the pipeline.” Robert Fico

“Please, let’s take this very seriously. Slovakia has gone from a country that was at the beginning of the pipeline to a country at the end of the pipeline. We do not have direct access to liquefied gas terminals. There may be a shortage of the commodity, prices will go up. Under these conditions, it is our duty as the government of the Slovak Republic to assert that RePowerEU is harmful. It is simply an ideological idea,” Fico assessed.

According to him, Slovakia has not yet received answers from the EC to several questions regarding, for example, compensation for higher gas prices or the consequences of a possible arbitration with the Russian company Gazprom, with which Slovakia has a long-term supply contract until 2034. The argument that Slovakia can invoke force majeure (vis maior) in the form of legislative change in the EU, according to the Prime Minister, will not be recognized by anyone in arbitration.

“In international arbitration, everyone will disregard force majeure. Again, we ask, who will pay us if there is an arbitration decision of 16 to 20 billion euros, this money? The answer is that no one, that it is our internal matter,” he warned.

In this context, Fico plans to clarify to the EC President that the legislative act stopping the flow of gas from January 1, 2028, is, in his opinion, a sanction against Russia. For this reason, he wants to link this topic with the adoption of the 18th sanctions package, which is to be voted on during the EU summit and which needs to be approved unanimously. Slovakia will request a postponement of the vote, and if that does not happen, it will vote against it, Fico announced.

“As for tomorrow’s vote on sanctions, Slovakia will not vote on the eighteenth sanctions package, to be very clear. We consider it one package, including RePowerEU, and we believe that if the fundamental issues are not resolved, we cannot adopt any further sanctions,” the Prime Minister added.

In addition to the EC President, he is also scheduled to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Brussels on Thursday. Their discussion is also expected to focus mainly on the RePowerEU initiative. “The German Federal Chancellor also realizes that Slovakia is an important country because they have the automotive industry here. They probably do not want their factories to collapse, they probably do not want their subcontracting German companies that are here to collapse,” Fico added. (June 26)