Fico: No Monitoring Commission Has Visited Oil Pipeline Facility in Brody

Brussels, 20 March (TASR-correspondent) - No monitoring commission has visited the oil pipeline facility in the Ukrainian city of Brody in Lviv region; the Ukrainians haven't allowed anyone access to the site, so no one knows what the state the oil pipeline is in, said Slovak Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) following the European Council summit in Brussels on Friday. Fico described the meeting as demanding, with several issues requiring urgent action. He reiterated that discussions on Ukraine were narrowed down to two issues – the blocked €90-billion loan for Kiev and the interruption of oil supplies to Slovakia and Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline. According to him, these two issues are closely interconnected, even though several leaders sought to separate them. Hungarian Premier Viktor Orban is blocking the payment of the already agreed-upon loan to Ukraine, as well as the adoption of the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions due to this dispute. Attempts to persuade him during Thursday's summit again failed. However, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated that the Union will find a way to release the loan. At the same time, European Council President Antonio Costa said that the leaders at the summit described Budapest's approach to this matter as unacceptable. The Slovak premier rejected claims that Bratislava has blocked the loan for Ukraine, calling it a misinterpretation of the rejection of the European Council conclusions on Ukraine. He said that he had politically supported Orban. Fico thanked the EC for its offer of help in repairing the pipeline, but accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of interfering in the upcoming elections in Hungary. "I don't want to take any retaliatory measures at any cost," said Fico, not ruling them out in the future, however. So far, Slovakia has halted emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine as a countermeasure. EU leaders at the summit also discussed the ongoing war in the Middle East at the summit. According to Fico, there is no willingness among member states to become directly involved in the conflict. He opines that the EU should definitely not engage militarily in the fighting in the region. "The war is unfolding very differently from what the US administration had anticipated. I think everyone is shocked by Iran's military capability to attack targets outside Iranian territory after such a long period of massive bombing and attacks, which is really surprising for many," noted Fico. Fico said that increasing competitiveness was another important topic discussed at the summit, but no specific urgent solutions were adopted to reduce energy prices, which he believes are closely related to improving the bloc's level of competitiveness. "We're witnessing not only a crisis, but above all the EU's objective inability to respond to this situation," he said. ko/df