France urging EU to ban Russian crude

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that the European Union is working on banning Russian oil imports. He added that the country’s President Emmanuel Macron wants such a move.

“I hope that in the weeks to come we will convince our European partners to stop importing Russian oil,” Le Maire told French radio station Europe 1, according to Reuters.“We have always said that we want an embargo on coal, and we have done it,” the minister said, adding that stopping oil imports from Russia has become “more necessary than ever” as it “will undermine the financing of the war in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, the French president said on Monday that France doesn’t need Russian gas and will continue to push for sanctions on supplies of it.

“Europe depends on Russian gas... but France does not need it,” Macron said in an interview with France 5 TV channel, adding that Paris is working to buy gas from other countries.

Earlier in April, Macron urged the European Union to restrict Russian oil and coal importation. Russia supplies around 40% of the EU’s natural gas and provides around a third of the bloc’s oil needs.

This month, the European Union approved a ban on Russian coal, but could not reach an agreement on an oil and natural-gas embargo. Many EU countries are heavily dependent on Russian energy, while some have no alternative, being landlocked and therefore unable to receive liquefied gas.

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