Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has criticized the European Union (EU) for what he calls the bloc's inability to deal with the economic fallout across the continent.
Prime Minister Fico issued a warning in a video message about Ukraine's recent decision to stop transiting Russian gas to EU member states.
Kiev refused to extend the contract with Russia's Gazprom, so the transportation of Russian gas through Ukraine to Hungary, Austria and Slovakia was stopped from January 1, 2025.
Prime Minister Fico accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of "sabotaging the financial interests of Slovakia and the EU", saying stopping transit could trigger a bloc-wide energy crisis and cost around 70 billion euros ($72 billion).
“Neither Slovakia nor the EU is at war, we have no reason to tolerate Mr. Zelensky's adventures, especially when looking at the aid that Slovakia and the EU are providing to Ukraine,” Prime Minister Fico said in a video quoted by News Now news agency.
Mr Fico continued to express frustration with the EU’s inaction, saying he was in Brussels to meet the energy commissioner and would do everything possible “to wake him up from his good night’s sleep, because we are facing a very serious problem”.
Prime Minister Fico met with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen on January 9 to discuss the impact of Ukraine’s switch off of Russian gas on regional energy prices. Talks on the issue are expected to continue.
In the video, the Slovak prime minister also rejected accusations from President Zelensky, the Slovak opposition and some Western officials that he was aligned with Moscow. Prime Minister Fico said his priority was to protect Slovakia's financial and national interests. He stressed that the EU's overall focus should be on dealing with the economic consequences, not engaging in meaningless political debates.
“… Looking at the EU, I fear that the union will collapse sooner than we can imagine,” he stressed.
Regarding his recent trip to Moscow, Prime Minister Fico pointed to Kiev's gas blockade as the reason behind his visit to Russia.
“I needed to ensure at least the amount of gas for Slovakia’s domestic consumption, which we did without raising gas prices,” he said, confirming Russia’s commitment to continue supplying gas to Slovakia via the TurkStream gas pipeline.
Kiev’s cut-off of Russian gas supplies has sent gas prices in Europe soaring to 50 euros per megawatt hour for the first time in more than a year, prompting Italy to call for an immediate extension of the EU’s emergency gas price cap to prevent a bloc-wide energy price shock.
