Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has denounced the European Commission’s intention to phase out all remaining gas imports from Russia by the end of 2027.
“This is simply economic suicide to go to the point where neither gas, nor nuclear, nor oil, everything must end just because some new Iron Curtain is being built between the Western world and perhaps Russia and other countries,” Fico said on Wednesday, May 7th.
He added that the Commission’s proposals would harm the EU, raising prices and damaging its competitiveness.
The conservative government of Hungary also criticised the plans, with Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó saying that the Commission is “making another extremely serious mistake by forcibly, artificially and ideologically excluding energy sources from Russia out of Europe.”
The Commission’s legal proposals, due in June, will require approval from the European Parliament and a qualified majority of member states—meaning one or two countries cannot block the plans.
