Fiala: Europe not yet ready to impose energy embargo on Russia

Speaking ahead of the launch of Thursday’s NATO summit in Brussels, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said he doesn’t believe that Europe is ready to enact a full energy embargo on Russia. However, he said that he welcomes discussion on the topic.

Brussels this week is set to host not just to a high profile meeting of Western alliance leaders, but also a G7 summit and a European Council meeting.

The Czech prime minister said that the presence of US President Joe Biden at the EU Council meeting highlights the extraordinary situation that has arisen since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He also said that the government has agreed to calculate the costs expended to deal with the refugee crisis and ask the EU for financial subsidies to cover them. He expects EU countries will agree to allocate additional financial funds and help member states dealing with the large refugee wave resulting from the conflict.