Germany Drops Opposition to Russian Oil Ban, Ministers Say

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner speaks at a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 28, 2022. (Reuters)
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner speaks at a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 28, 2022. (Reuters)
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Germany Drops Opposition to Russian Oil Ban, Ministers Say

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner speaks at a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 28, 2022. (Reuters)
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner speaks at a news conference in Berlin, Germany, April 28, 2022. (Reuters)

Two senior ministers in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government on Monday said Germany would be ready to back an immediate European Union ban on Russian oil imports, and that Europe's biggest economy could weather shortages and price hikes.

The comments by Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Economy Minister Robert Habeck are the latest sign Sholz has shifted from his cautious approach toward Russia and is willing to back sanctions against Moscow even if they have economic costs at home.

Speaking in Brussels, Habeck of the ecologist Greens said Germany would back an EU ban, regardless of whether the stoppage was immediate or by the end of the year.

"Germany is not against an oil ban on Russia. Of course it is a heavy load to bear but we would be ready to do that," Habeck told reporters before talks with his EU colleagues.

Germany cut the share of Russian oil to 12% from 35% before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

It is working on finding alternative fuel supplies, most urgently for the Russian oil that comes by pipeline to a refinery in Schwedt operated by Russian state company Rosneft.

Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats told a German broadcaster that the German economy could tolerate an immediate ban.

"With coal and oil, it is possible to forgo Russian imports now," Lindner told WELT. "It can't be ruled out that fuel prices could rise."

Habeck had said earlier in Berlin that the main challenge was to find alternative oil deliveries for Schwedt, which supplies east German regions as well as the Berlin metropolitan area.

Those areas could face supply shortages in the event of an EU embargo if Germany cannot secure alternative oil imports by the end of the year, Habeck said.

"We still have no solution for the refinery in Schwedt," said Habeck. "We can't guarantee that supplies will be continuous. There will for sure be price hikes and there will be some outages. But that doesn't mean we will slide into an oil crisis."

Two European Union diplomats said at the weekend that the bloc is leaning toward a ban on Russian oil by the end of the year as part of a sixth package of sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Habeck said an embargo in a few months would give Germany time to organise tankers that bring oil to ports in the north of the country that would flow through pipelines to Schwedt.

"It would help to have weeks or months to do all the technical preparations," he said. "We would have to find ships that carry oil from west to east, we have to prepare the harbors, we have to prepare the pipelines. So time is helpful but I think other countries have bigger problems."



Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
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Huge Power Outage Paralyzes Parts of Spain and Portugal

This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)
This photograph shows a flamenco dress factory without light and workers during a massive power cut affecting the entire Iberian peninsula and the south of France, in Seville on April 28, 2025. (AFP)

A huge power outage hit large parts of Spain and Portugal on Monday, paralyzing traffic, grounding flights, trapping people in elevators and leaving power operators scrambling to restore power to millions of homes and businesses.

Some hospitals halted routine work and the two countries' governments convened emergency cabinet meetings, with officials initially saying a possible cyber-attack could not be ruled out. Outages on such a scale are extremely rare in Europe, and the cause could not immediately be established.

Reuters witnesses said power had started returning to the Basque country and Barcelona areas of Spain in the early afternoon, a few hours after the outage began. It was not clear when power might be more widely restored.

Hospitals in Madrid and Cataluna in Spain suspended all routine medical work but were still attending to critical patients, using backup generators. Several Spanish oil refineries were shut down and retail businesses shut.

The Bank of Spain said electronic banking was functioning "adequately" on backup systems, though residents also reported ATM screens had gone blank.

"I'm in a data center, and everything has gone off. All the alarms popped up, and now we're with the groups, waiting to find out what happened," said Barcelona resident and engineer Jose Maria Espejo, 40.

In a video posted on X, Madrid Mayor Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida urged city residents to minimize their journeys and stay where they were, adding: "It is essential that the emergency services can circulate."

In Portugal, water supplier EPAL said water supplies could also be disrupted, and queues formed at stores by people rushing to purchase emergency supplies like gaslights, generators and batteries.

The main Portuguese electricity utility, EDP, said it had told customers it had no forecast for when the energy supply would be "normalized", Publico newspaper said. It warned it could take several hours.

Parts of France also suffered a brief outage. RTE, the French grid operator, said it had moved to supplement power to some parts of northern Spain after the outage hit.

Play at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was suspended, forcing 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov and British opponent Jacob Fearnley off the court as scoreboards went dark and overhead cameras lost power.

TRAFFIC JAMS

Spanish radio stations said part of the Madrid underground was being evacuated. There were traffic jams in Madrid city center as traffic lights stopped working, Cader Ser Radio station reported.

Hundreds of people stood outside office buildings on Madrid’s streets and there was a heavy police presence around key buildings, directing traffic as well as driving along central atriums with lights, according to a Reuters witness.

One of four tower buildings in Madrid that houses the British Embassy had been evacuated, the witness added.

Local radio reported people trapped in stalled metro cars and elevators.

Portuguese police said traffic lights were affected across the country, the metro was closed in Lisbon and Porto, and trains were not running.

Lisbon's subway transport operator Metropolitano de Lisboa said the subway was at a standstill with people still inside the trains, according to Publico newspaper.

A source at Portugal's TAP Air said Lisbon airport was running on back-up generators, while AENA, which manages 46 airports in Spain, reported flight delays around the country.

Such widespread outages are unusual in Europe. In 2003 a problem with a hydroelectric power line between Italy and Switzerland caused a major outage across the whole Italian peninsula for around 12 hours.

In 2006 an overloaded power network in Germany caused electricity cuts across parts of the country and in France, Italy, Spain, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands and as far as Morocco.