Confucius Commission on gas – Warns now about ruble bills

The European Commission said Tuesday that opening ruble accounts in a Russian bank to pay for gas would violate its sanctions, a day after Brussels issued a directive saying companies could legally continue shopping.

According to Reuters, member states and companies have been asking the Commission for weeks for clarity on how to proceed, following Moscow’s request in late March for gas payments to be made into special Gazprombank accounts. conversion into rubles.

In an updated directive, notified to EU countries on Friday, the Commission confirmed that European sanctions do not prevent companies from opening a bank account.

According to the Commission, the companies can pay for Russian gas provided that they do so in the currency mentioned in their existing contracts, while stating that their contractual obligation has been fulfilled by paying the amount in that currency.

Almost all of the EU companies’ supply contracts with Russian gas giant Gazprom are in euros or dollars.

However, according to Reuters, a spokesman for the European Commission said on Tuesday that opening a ruble account with Gazprombank would violate the EU sanctions regime.

“It goes beyond what we have given the member states’ indications of what is allowed under the sanctions regime,” the commission spokesman told a regular news conference.

It is recalled that on March 31, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that payments for gas should henceforth be made in rubles, otherwise exports would stop.

It was further clarified that the procedure will provide for the opening of a double account in Gazprombank, through which payments in euros or dollars will be made as provided in the contracts in force, but will be converted internally in the bank in rubles.

As the Bloomberg news agency noted from the outset regarding the Commission’s briefing in the Member States on Friday, the updated directive failed to address this issue on this point.

Elsewhere in the directive, if European companies make a payment in euros or dollars and declare that their obligation has been completed, no further payment action should be required from the Russian side.

According to Bloomberg, when the Commission’s directive was announced, Germany, Hungary, Italy and France had generally approved the plan, but Poland had said it was failing to provide legal clarity and had asked for the matter to be referred to EU ambassadors.

Other countries were confused by the lack of a specific explanation for opening accounts in rubles.

For its part, Germany said it had consulted its companies about the proposal and received positive feedback, according to a source in the agency. Berlin also clarified that EU sanctions do not prohibit the opening of multiple accounts with Gazprombank.