Deal announced on EU phasing out gas imports from Russia

The Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU and the European Parliament’s representatives reached a provisional agreement on December 3 on the regulation to phase out imports of Russian natural gas, a statement by the Council of the EU said.

The regulation constitutes a central element of the EU’s REPowerEU roadmap to end dependency on Russian energy following Russia’s weaponisation of gas supplies with significant effects on the European energy market, the statement said.

The regulation introduces a legally binding, stepwise prohibition on both liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas imports from Russia, with a full ban from the end of 2026 and autumn 2027, respectively.

“It will contribute to the overarching goal of achieving a resilient and independent EU energy market, while preserving the EU’s security of supply,” the Council of the EU said.

The co-legislators confirmed that imports of Russian pipeline gas and LNG will be prohibited from six weeks after entry into force of the regulation, while maintaining a transition period for existing contracts.

For short-term supply contracts concluded before June 17 2025, the prohibition of Russian gas imports will apply from April 25 2026 for LNG and June 17 2026 for pipeline gas.

For long-term contracts for LNG imports, the prohibition will apply from January 1 2027, in line with the 19th sanctions package.

As regards long-term contracts for pipeline gas imports, the prohibition will kick in on  September 30 2027, conditioned on the storage filling targets foreseen in the gas storage regulation being in line to be fulfilled, and at the latest on November 1 2027.

Amendments to existing contracts will be permitted only for narrowly defined operational purposes and cannot lead to increased volumes.

The co-legislators included the requirement that both categories of gas imports be subject to a prior authorisation regime in order to ensure that the prohibition will work in practice.

For Russian gas and those imports falling under the transition period, the information required for authorisation must be submitted at least one month before entry.

For non-Russian gas, the proof must be provided at least five days before entry and seven days for gas imported via the Strandzha 1 interconnection point.

In order to reduce the administrative burden, the co-legislators agreed that this prior authorisation procedure would not apply to imports from countries that fulfil certain criteria, such as major gas-producing countries that exported more than 5 bcm of natural gas to the EU in 2024, and that either prohibit or restrict imports of Russian gas, or countries without any infrastructure to import.

Based on ongoing monitoring by customs and authorising authorities, the European Commission can update the list of exempted countries and, if necessary, may remove countries from the list, e.g. in case of documented circumvention.

The regulation mandates all member states to submit national diversification plans outlining measures for diversifying their gas supplies and potential challenges, with a view to ending all gas imports from Russia by in time with the deadlines foreseen in the regulation.

At the same time, the agreement strengthens the Commission’s oversight by requiring member states to notify the Commission within one month of the regulation’s entry into force whether they have Russian gas supply contracts or national legal bans in place.

The same requirement to submit a national diversification plan will apply to those member states that are still importing Russian oil, with a view to discontinuing those imports.

The regulation will be accompanied by a Commission’s statement on the intention to put forward a legislative proposal on phasing out Russian oil imports to the EU no later than end of 2027.

The co-legislators introduced provisions for effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties for failure to comply with the measures set out in the regulation, including a maximum threshold for penalties both for companies and private individuals, the statement said.

The Council and the Parliament maintained the suspension clause, which provides the possibility to temporarily suspend the application of the regulation in the case of sudden developments threatening the security of energy supply of one or more member states.

Specifically, the co-legislators agreed to tighten the conditions for the Commission to trigger the temporary lifting of the import prohibition, based on a strict necessity, the state of emergency as declared by a member state and only for a limited period and covering short-term supply contracts.

In order to assess the impact of the regulation, the co-legislators also required the Commission to review the implementation of the regulation within two years of its entry into force, including the provisions on the prior authorisation procedures.