Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said his country would challenge the ban on Russian gas imports at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
He wrote about this on the social network X.
Fico says his government is concerned that the EU passed the ban by qualified majority, not unanimously.
"We are concerned about how this provision was adopted. We are convinced — and I believe that this is not only our opinion, but also the opinion of other prime ministers — that in this case this is a sanctions regime, a sanction measure. Therefore, this decision should have been adopted unanimously," Fico stressed.
According to him, the European Commission knew that some countries were opposed to this regulation. Therefore, the unanimity requirement was bypassed and the regulation was adopted by a qualified majority.
"In the opinion of the Slovak government, this is a clear violation of all the principles on which the EU treaties are based. They stipulate that decisions on sanctions and foreign policy issues must be taken unanimously," the Slovak Prime Minister added.
Fico noted that the government will file a lawsuit with the EU Court of Justice by April 27. Hungary has previously filed a similar lawsuit against the ban, although it is not yet known how the new government will act on this issue.
"The Court of Justice of the European Union may issue a ruling in this case that will be a turning point and decisive for the future functioning of the EU," Fico concluded.
Europeʼs refusal of Russian gas
In May 2022, the EU put forward the REPowerEU proposal to eliminate dependence on Russian gas by 2030 in response to Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Only Hungary and Slovakia insist on continuing to buy cheap Russian energy.
In December 2025, the EU announced that it had agreed on a plan to stop importing Russian gas. And on January 26, 2026, the EU Council finally banned imports of Russian pipeline gas and LNG.
A complete ban on LNG imports will come into effect from the beginning of 2027, and for pipeline gas from the fall of 2027.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.