>European Commission, France and Germany all announced that European energy companies should be allowed to pay for gas in rubles at a closed meeting between EC representatives and EU diplomats in Brussels on late Friday evening.
>Poland & the Netherlands were outraged.
>Poland’s PM Mateusz Morawiecki says that he is disappointed by how the EU is handling the issue and says that Russia unilaterally cut Poland off from Russian gas in breech of the contract signed between the two.
>At the meeting, the French side went even further and said that European companies could open bank accounts in rubles in Russian banks without this being an act that goes against EU sanctions.
>The German diplomat told the EC he had consulted the EC’s new position with all German companies importing Russian energy & that they were pleased with the new stance.
>The Polish diplomat wondered how the German had managed to consult them all within minutes of the announcement.
>Several countries said that the EC had taken an unacceptable position considering what is happening in Ukraine.
>The Dutch diplomat asked the EC how they envision Russia to access and convert euros into rubles on the two western accounts and that Russia shouldn’t have access too
>The meeting was called on short notice on a late Friday evening by France (holding the rotating presidency).
>Other diplomats did it is a trick that is often used to attract as little media attention as possible to controversial subjects.
>The diplomat representing Italy stated that the government in Rome also believes that European companies are allowed to convert euro into rubles for Russian gas payments without breaking sanctions.
>The full article about how the EC is reversing on previous statements by Ursula van der Leyen (who claimed that solutions based on converting euros into rubles would go against the EU’s sanctions) can be read on the page of the Polish Press Agency
