Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s talks with the head of the European Union about proposed sanctions on Russian oil imports made “some progress,” though further talks are needed to assuage Hungary’s energy security concerns, according to the country’s foreign minister.

Orban, who is blocking EU sanctions citing Hungary’s reliance on Russian energy, hosted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in his office in Budapest on Monday evening for a working dinner.

“We made some progress, we could say we took a small step forward,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a Facebook video after the conclusion of the talks. “A lot more needs to be done, though, for us to potentially change our position.”

The EU’s sixth sanctions package against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine would ban Russian crude oil over the next six months and refined fuels by early January. The EU had previously offered Hungary and Slovakia until the end of 2024 to comply with the sanctions and the Czech Republic until June of the same year since they are heavily reliant on Russian crude. 

Orban said last week that nothing short of a five-year exemption and billions of dollars to cover the cost of overhauling Hungary’s energy industry would make him back the new round of sanctions.