The European Commission is set to propose a ban on imports of Russian LNG by January 1, 2027, which would be a year earlier than previously planned, EU sources told Reuters on Friday, as the bloc looks to respond to U.S. pressure to phase out Russian energy.
Following a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this week, banning Russian LNG earlier than planned has become a “priority” for the EU, one of the sources told Reuters.
The EU currently plans to phase out all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027, under a roadmap to end dependency on Russian energy unveiled in May this year.
“We are particularly looking at phasing out Russian fossil fuels faster,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the 2025 State of the Union Address last week, without giving details how the EU could do it.
However, the United States has intensified pressure on the EU to cut off imports of Russian energy to accelerate revenue declines for the Kremlin in coordinated efforts to force Putin to negotiate peace in Ukraine.
“Since we presented the RePowerEU plan in 2022, we’ve been saying that a phaseout of Russian energy is better sooner rather than later,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, a spokeswoman for the European Commission told Bloomberg.
Last week, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the EU could accelerate the phase out of natural gas imports from Russia and end purchases within six to 12 months by replacing it with American LNG.
“The faster we phase out, the sooner you put pressure on Russia,” Secretary Wright told Reuters last week, as the United States is intensifying pressure on its EU and G7 partners to act with tariffs on India and China over their continued imports of Russian crude oil.
Many EU member states aren’t keen to slap tariff on India and China, that’s why the EU is now targeting faster phase-out of Russian LNG, sources familiar with the plan told Bloomberg.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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