By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission will announce a more detailed strategy to phase out Russian oil and gas imports next month, it said on Monday, after twice delaying the plan.
The EU has pledged to quit Russian fossil fuels by 2027 in response to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but the Commission has delayed publishing its “roadmap” for how to do so. The plan was initially due last month.
The Commission will now publish the roadmap on May 6, an agenda published on Monday showed.
The delays were due in part to uncertainty around U.S. President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs, with energy trade potentially factoring into EU-U.S. trade talks, EU sources told Reuters.
While Russian pipeline gas deliveries have plunged since 2022, the EU increased its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year, and the bloc still got 19% of its total gas and LNG supply from Russia in 2024.
Unlike oil, the EU has not imposed sanctions on imports of Russian gas.
Hungary has vowed to block Russian energy sanctions, which require unanimous approval from EU countries, while some other governments have also signalled unwillingness to approve sanctions on Russian LNG before the EU secures alternative supplies.
The Commission has not indicated what tools it plans to propose to accelerate its Russian energy phase-out. Analysts at the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank have suggested the EU impose tariffs on Russian gas imports.
Quitting Russian gas entirely would mean more EU purchases from suppliers including the United States.
The EU has said it would consider buying more LNG from the United States, and Trump has said selling more energy to Europe would be a key focus of his administration’s efforts to eliminate its trade deficit with the EU.
U.S. LNG helped to plug the Russian supply gap in Europe during the 2022 energy crisis. Last year, the U.S. was Europe’s third-biggest gas supplier, after Russia and top supplier Norway.
But some businesses and EU diplomats are wary that reliance on U.S. gas has become a vulnerability, after Trump has indicated energy will be a bargaining chip in trade negotiations.
(Reporting by Kate Abnett and Julia Payne; Editing by Joe Bavier)
