"I do not think [that this is likely]. The thing is, in the European Union itself, almost all payments are in dollars, especially on large projects, including those in the oil and gas industry", Kelin said when asked if an agreement to switch to payments in euros could be signed with the European Union by the end of 2019.
The measures toward using national currencies are supposed to reduce certain risks for entrepreneurs in Russia and the European Union and boost bilateral trade.
Russia and Brussels have been discussing using national currencies, instead of the US dollar, for bilateral trade deals. On 13 June, Russia’s Finance Minister Anton Siluanov met with Maros Sefcovic, the vice president of the European Commission for the Energy Union, to discuss the creation of a working group that would facilitate the process.
In early June, Russian Economy Minister Maxim Oreshkin told Sputnik that in the global economy, the US dollar was gradually losing its share of the market, as major powers like China and Turkey were increasing their share in the euro.
