EU fails to agree on Russian oil price cap, say diplomats

Union governments failed to agree on Monday on a price cap on Russian seaborne crude oil, as Poland insisted that the cap had to be set lower than proposed by the G7 to cut Moscow’s ability to finance its invasion of Ukraine, diplomats said. “There is no deal. The legal texts have now been agreed, but Poland still can’t agree to the price,” one diplomat said. No new date for talks has been set yet, diplomats said, even though the price cap mechanism is to enter into force on Dec. 5. If there was no agreement on the G7 price cap idea by next Monday, the EU would implement harsher measures agreed at the end of May—a ban on all Russian crude oil imports from Dec. 5 and on petroleum products from Feb. 5, Polish diplomats said.