BRUSSELS — European Union leaders reached an overnight agreement to ban imports of Russian gas by autumn 2027, a landmark step aimed at severing a major revenue stream for Moscow and marking, in the words of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, “the dawn of a new era” of energy independence from Russia.
The compromise, struck between EU capitals and the European Parliament, sets a staggered timetable: long-term pipeline contracts will be prohibited from Sept. 30, 2027 — provided EU gas storage levels are sufficient — and no later than Nov. 1, 2027. Long-term contracts for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, will be banned from Jan. 1, 2027. Short-term contracts are set to be phased out earlier: April 25, 2026, for LNG and June 17, 2026, for pipeline gas.
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“This is the dawn of a new era, the era of Europe’s full energy independence from Russia,” von der Leyen told journalists after the deal. EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen wrote on X that “we’ve made it: Europe is turning off the tap on Russian gas, forever.”
The timeline still requires final approval from the European Parliament and member states. The agreement allows companies to invoke “force majeure” to legally justify breaking existing contracts in light of the import ban, and it tasks the Commission with drafting a plan in the coming months to end Russian oil imports to Hungary and Slovakia by the end of 2027.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the EU leader most closely aligned with the Kremlin, has publicly vowed to continue importing Russian hydrocarbons after a meeting with President Vladimir Putin. The EU moved to curb Russian oil imports in 2022 but granted exemptions to the two landlocked countries at the time.
EU institutions framed the measure as a response to what they called the “weaponisation” of gas supplies by Russia, which has had significant effects on European energy markets since the invasion of Ukraine. Nearly four years after the war began, officials said the bloc must finally cut off a lucrative stream of energy revenue for Moscow.
The share of Russian gas in EU imports has fallen from 45% in 2021 to 19% in 2024, driven largely by declines in pipeline deliveries. Europe has offset some of that loss by importing more LNG. Behind the United States, which supplied about 45% of EU LNG in 2024, Russia remained a key supplier at roughly 20% — about 20 billion cubic meters out of roughly 100 billion cubic meters of EU LNG imports.
Despite the decline in pipeline flows, imports of Russian LNG into the EU were still expected to amount to about €15 billion this year, illustrating the economic stakes the new ban seeks to eliminate.
Lawmakers and member states will now weigh the political and practical implications of the phased ban as Brussels moves to tighten sanctions on Russia while managing energy security across the bloc.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
