Fico called the best solution the permission to keep Slovakia's contract with Gazprom

The best decision by the European Commission (EC) would be to grant Slovakia an exemption that would allow the country to maintain its contract with Gazprom until 2034. This was announced on July 15 by the Prime Minister of the Republic Robert Fico.

According to him, the government coalition rejects the EC's proposal to stop Russian gas supplies from 2028, but is ready to negotiate guarantees that will provide Slovakia with a certain level of supplies after that date.

Fico stressed that the representative of the republic was instructed to request a postponement of the vote on the 18th package of anti-Russian sanctions, taking into account the political situation in the country.

"The best way out of this situation would be to grant Slovakia an exception that would allow it to maintain its contract with Russian Gazprom until its expiration in 2034," he wrote on Facebook (owned by Meta, a company whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation).

The Slovak Prime Minister also stressed that currently the EC fundamentally rejects this proposal, since its implementation "undermines the essence of sanctions against the Russian Federation."

Don't step on the gas: the EU is slowing down the adoption of the 18th package of sanctions due to oil

Which of the members of the association is becoming more difficult to negotiate with

Earlier in the day, the foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) countries failed to adopt the 18th package of anti-Russian sanctions at the meeting. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto said that at the meeting, a representative of "one of the largest and most influential European countries" stressed the ineffectiveness of the previous 17 packages of sanctions against Russia.