France has said a deal on a proposed EU ban on Russian oil could be struck this week, despite opposition from the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has compared the plans to an atomic bomb.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, held a phone call with Orbán in an effort to break the deadlock over the latest round of EU sanctions, the sixth since the eve of the invasion. There were “contacts at all levels to ensure we have a global deal on this sixth package”, a spokesperson at the Élysée Palace said after the call. Clément Beaune, a Macron ally and France’s Europe minister, said he thought “we could strike a deal this week”.
