The EU's executive this month proposed a phased embargo on Russian oil as part of a new package of sanctions on Moscow over its war in Ukraine.
Poland is "working towards unity" around the planned embargo, but that is challenging for some countries without sea access, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said in an interview with the US broadcaster on Tuesday.
He cited Hungary, Slovakia, Austria and the Czech Republic, CNN reported on its website.
Speaking to CNN’s Richard Quest at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Morawiecki added: "I can imagine that we can have a compromise amongst the 27 countries so the oil embargo is imposed more quickly and some bottlenecks for them can be eliminated with the help of the European budget."
'We should seize the assets of the Russian Federation'
Asked about the next stage of EU sanctions, Morawiecki told CNN that what would hurt Russia most would be the confiscation of assets.
"The next stage—the most critical—is confiscating oligarchs' money, confiscating Russian Federation assets, because this is the real pain which Russia is going to feel, and the perpetrator should bear the cost of the war," Morawiecki said.
He added that "all the sanctions are important, but if we really want the sanctions to be painful for the aggressor, for the war criminals, we should seize the assets of the Russian Federation."
'A turning moment in the history of Europe'
Morawiecki said during the interview on CNN International's "Quest Means Business" that "totalitarian regimes are much more patient than democracies."
"This is why we have to work to make the public aware of what is happening in Ukraine," he told Quest.
Morawiecki described the Ukraine crisis as "a turning moment in the history of Europe, potentially even the whole world."
He also urged for further financial, military and humanitarian aid, CNN reported, so that this "colonial, imperial, nationalistic power called Russia is not succeeding, because if it is, then it’s a clear sign for some other potential aggressors that they could do the same."
Speaking in Davos earlier on Tuesday, Morawiecki called on the international community to “do everything we can to stop the war” in Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, cnn.com