Brnabic: I don't see way out of this oil and gas situation for Serbia, I hope Vucic has a solution

Photo: Tanjug/Marko Djokovic

President of the National Assembly of Serbia Ana Brnabic said on Monday, commenting on EU energy ministers supporting a gradual ban on import of Russian oil and gas, that she does not see a way out of this situation and that she hoped President Aleksandar Vucic would return from Hungary with a solution.

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"This is catastrophic news for us, truly catastrophic news. I don't remember us recently receiving such serious and bad news for Serbia. We built gas pipelines precisely to have a smooth, safe flow of gas to Serbia," Brnabic told Tanjug.

She added that there was also work on gas diversification in order to secure the country's energy security, and to make it as energy sustainable as possible.

"We built gas pipelines, we did what no one before us did before Aleksandar Vucic (first) became prime minster. But this is killing us. This is really killing us combined with the news about the problems with oil and with (US sanctions against) NIS," Brnabic stressed.

Brnabic added that she does not see a way out of this situation at the moment.

"Now that you also have problems with gas, if you have problems with oil, that is catastrophic news for Serbia and I really do not see a way out of this situation at this moment. I am waiting for the return Vucic from Hungary and I hope that he will have some solution, that he will have some idea how Serbia can solve all these problems and how our economy can survive all these things, but certainly this is something that is completely disastrous for us," said Brnabic.

At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU ministers approved plans to gradually cancel new contracts for import of Russian gas by January 2026, existing short-term contracts by June 2026 and long-term contracts by January 2028.

(Telegraf.rs/Tanjug)