All-out EU civil war erupts as members at each other's throats in another major row

Tension between EU members has been soaring after members rejected a “politically deeply offensive proposal". Slovakia and Hungary rebuffed a European Commission suggestion that they could replace lost Russian oil supplies via an alternative route through Croatia.

But the latter said that the country is unreliable for oil transit. The two countries were left fuming after Ukraine adopted sanctions effectively preventing the transit to their territories of crude sold by one of Russia's largest private oil firms, Lukoil.

Despite the sanctions issued on Russian oil by the European Union following the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine, some EU landlocked countries have been allowed to continue to receive the crude from Moscow until they can find alternative solutions.

The pipeline, also referred to as the "Friendship Pipeline", dates back to the Soviet era and carries crude, sold not just by Lukoil, some 2,500 miles from western Russia to eastern and central Europe.

Hungary and Slovakia earlier this month asked the European Commission to step in after concerns over supply shortages.

But they are rejecting the European Commission’s proposal to use spare capacity on the JANAF Adriatic pipeline in Croatia to supply both countries with oil not sourced in Russia.

“Croatia is simply not a reliable country for transit,” Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said. “Oil transit prices were raised fivefold since the outbreak of the (Ukraine) war by Croatia.”

Péter Szijjártó had previously called the sanctions an "unacceptable step".

“It is a politically deeply offensive statement that we did not expect from the representative of the country to which ill-intentioned moves we have long responded with extreme restraint and moderation,” Croatia’s Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said.

While Slovakia, whose Hungarian-owned Slovnaft refinery already takes some oil via JANAF, also known as Adria, said it had received a letter from the Croatian government offering to secure supplies.

“But for what price? What capacity? No one knows that today,” Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar said in a statement.

Earlier this month, just days after Hungary took on the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, the chief of staff of Prime Minister Viktor Orban travelled to both Ukraine and Russia in what he called a "peace mission".

This prompted outrage among EU officials, who stressed Mr Orban was not representing Brussels in his trip to the Kremlin.