BRUSSELS, July 13, 2025 (RTSG) – Slovakia is standing pat on its veto of the European Union’s long-negotiated 18th sanctions package against Russia, leaving the measure frozen after yet another closed-door meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels.
The new bundle—weeks in the making—aims to tighten the screws on Russia’s economy by blacklisting 77 “shadow-fleet” tankers, trimming the crude-oil price cap from $60 to $45 a barrel, sanctioning the idle Nord Stream pipelines, and converting the current SWIFT messaging ban into a full transaction block for 22 more Russian banks. It also adds stricter dual-use controls on two dozen firms, pushing the total number of sanctioned entities past 800.
Fico’s red lines
Prime Minister Robert Fico insists the plan would hammer Slovakia’s landlocked economy unless Brussels offers cast-iron guarantees on supply and price stability—or direct cash relief. In a video address from last month’s EU summit, the three-time premier warned that scrapping Slovakia’s long-term gas deal with Gazprom could trigger a €16 billion–€20 billion lawsuit and saddle households with higher bills. “Without compensation,” he said, “the proposal will hurt us.”
Although the European Commission dispatched a technical team to Bratislava to map out alternative gas routes and grid links, the talks ended without a breakthrough. Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen later told reporters the EU was “not negotiating fresh subsidies” but was confident regional interconnectors could keep Slovak lights on and prices in check.
Political leverage
Because the phase-out of Russian gas contracts can pass by qualified majority, Slovakia has little leverage there; sanctions, however, require unanimity—giving Bratislava a veto it is now using.
If Brussels cannot persuade Slovakia to lift its veto, the foreign ministers will discuss the sanctions package at the Council of the European Union meeting on Tuesday, 15 July.
A wider pattern
Fico has often positioned himself at odds with Brussels and Washington. His first premiership—bucking the pro-NATO trend present in Slovakia since 1998—saw as one of its first major decisions the withdrawal of Slovak troops out of Iraq in 2006; he later denounced U.S. missile-defense plans in Poland and the Czech Republic, tore into the Slovak–American Defense Cooperation Agreement, and labeled then-president Zuzana Čaputová a servant of the United States. He has also blasted the hypocritical face of the EU over Israel’s Gaza offensive, accusing them of ignoring Palestinian civilian casualties “just because Israel causes them.” Fico’s independent positioning has led to intense backlash, including an assassination attempt in 2024, which brought him very near to death. Regarding this assassination attempt, some, such as The Grayzone, have wondered whether it was a regime change operation due to the already existing and substantial funding provided to the pro-Western Slovak opposition by the United States. Despite this backlash, Fico has not yet wavered in his sovereigntist stance.
At home, more distinctions distance his government from neighboring countries; Fico’s Smer-SD party cultivates nostalgia for the socialist era. Fico himself—a former member of the now-defunct Czechoslovakia’s Communist Party—has publicly honored the republic’s last communist president and installed hard-left firebrand Ľuboš Blaha as his foreign-policy adviser. Blaha attacks the Ukraine war as a deadly proxy conflict and brands Washington and Israel the “main threats to peace.”
Sources: Euronews; European External Action Service
Written by Louis, Edited by Seraph
