As the European Union seeks to end its dependency on Russian energy, the European Commission is set to propose this week a ban on new contracts for natural gas supply with Russia on the basis of trade law, which needs a majority vote approval instead of a unanimous EU call.
EU companies will be banned from signing new contracts for Russian gas, based on trade law, which is aimed at sidestepping vetoes from Hungary and Slovakia, the Financial Times reported on Monday, quoting a summary of the proposals it had seen.
Hungary and Slovakia, which continue to receive Russian gas via a pipeline through Balkans, have pledged to veto an outright ban in a sanctions package. Passing sanctions needs unanimous approval from all EU member states, but the use of trade law would require only an approval from the majority of the countries.
Yet, the EU will grant exemptions to Hungary and Slovakia to phase out current Russian gas contracts by 2027, officials familiar with the Commission’s plan told FT.
The phase-out of Russian energy imports is part of the EU’s roadmap to end dependency on Russian energy unveiled last month.
The roadmap calls for the EU to stop all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027 by improving the transparency, monitoring, and traceability of Russian gas across the EU markets. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas will be prevented and spot contracts (for immediate payment) will be stopped by the end of 2025, the European Commission said last month.
As part of the EU’s efforts to halt imports of Russian natural gas, the bloc will require EU companies to disclose details of their contracts to buy Russian gas, according to an internal European Commission document seen by Reuters last week.
The EU will demand from EU companies to disclose many details of the deals, including duration, annual contracted volumes, date of conclusion of the contracts, and destination clauses, per the internal documents seen by Reuters.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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