- European Union energy ministers agreed a joint position on plans to ban all gas supplies from Russia by the end of 2027.
- A qualified majority of officials supported the ban, which starts by prohibiting Russian supplies under existing short-term contracts by mid-June, with an exemption for landlocked countries.
- The EU is pursuing a two-pronged strategy to finally end its addiction to Russian fossil fuels after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022.
European Union energy ministers agreed a joint position on plans to ban all gas supplies from Russia by the end of 2027, as the bloc looks to definitively end its reliance on energy from Moscow.
A qualified majority of officials meeting in Luxembourg Monday supported the ban, which starts by prohibiting Russian supplies under existing short-term contracts by mid-June, with an exemption for landlocked countries such as Hungary and Slovakia. A prohibition on long-term deals follows 18 months later. Hungary and Slovakia did not support the ban.
The deal on Monday was a procedural step on the RePowerEU regulation, which aims to permanently end Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Negotiations with the European Parliament, which is calling for a faster exit from Russian gas and a halting of oil imports from the start of next year, can now start. The aim is to reach a final deal before the end of the year.
The EU is pursuing a two-pronged strategy to finally end its addiction to Russian fossil fuels after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022. The second strand involves a separate proposal to impose sanctions on imports of Russian liquefied natural gas from the start of 2027. It requires unanimity and is still being discussed.
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“This is not just for the present conflict,” Dan Jorgensen, the EU’s energy commissioner, said at the start of the meeting on Monday. “It’s for the future. Never again should we make this mistake.”
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