Bulgaria Cancels Exemption from EU Sanctions against Russia and Tax on Its Gas Transit

The Bulgarian parliament has passed in the first and second reading a ban on the export of Russian oil-based fuels, which was an exception to the EU ban, and also cancelled the tax on Russian Gazprom's [Russian state-owned energy corporation] gas transit through its territory to facilitate accession to the Schengen area.

As reported by BNT News, lawmakers have imposed a ban on the export of fuel made from Russian oil effective 1 January, and Lukoil's [a Russian multinational energy corporation] refinery is to suspend processing of Russian oil from 1 March.

Russia's Lukoil is considering selling its oil refinery in Bulgaria.

In this way, Sofia is prematurely suspending the exemption from the EU ban on seaborne imports of Russian oil, which is subject to sanctions and has brought Russia millions of euros.

The lawmakers also supported the abolition of the trade duty on imports and transit of Russian natural gas. This came after Hungary issued an ultimatum to Bulgaria and threatened to veto its accession to Schengen.

The oil exemption has brought Russia €2 billion in export revenues since the sanctions came into effect, with an estimated €1 billion in taxes paid to Moscow.

The Bulgarian government announced plans to lift the sanctions exemption against Russia on 1 March instead of the previous self-imposed deadline of 31 October. On Wednesday, Bulgarian lawmakers initiated the process of turning this plan into law: the parliament's economic committee voted in favour of the proposal. However, the draft law did not contain any mention of price caps.

Meanwhile, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov had previously admitted that Hungary was blackmailing the Schengen agreement because of the gas tax.