The Dplomat
The third vice-president and minister for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, said yesterday that the government “will ensure that the fuels arriving in Spain do not come from Russia”, although she insisted that “apparently everything is in order”.
These statements by the minister come after the CEO of Repsol, Josu Jon Imaz, assured on Thursday that Russian diesel “is still in the European market and in the Spanish market”, explaining that it arrives after a stopover in destinations such as Turkey or North Africa.
This possible illegal entry of fuel from Russia would be contrary to the ban on imports of Russian diesel into the European Union approved by the EU body as a measure of pressure in the face of the invasion of Ukraine.
“In the face of the slightest suspicion, what we need to do is investigate whether the papers are correct and whether the products imported into Spain are indeed from where they say they are from, or whether they come from another source and there has been some kind of irregularity,” Ribera told the media at the Forum Europa breakfast meeting held yesterday at the Mandarin Oriental Ritz Hotel (Madrid), according to Europa Press.
“In the first consultations, the importers show documentation that is apparently in order and the products do not come from Russia, but obviously we are vigilant and we will make sure that this is the case,” the minister concluded.
Imaz called on the European authorities to be “really firm” and stop imports of Russian diesel into Europe via intermediate destinations.
