Reuters: European Union will soon present a plan to abandon Russian oil and gas

The European Union will unveil a detailed strategy for phasing out Russian oil and gas imports on May 6. The publication of this plan has already been postponed twice.

Reuters writes about this.

The EU has pledged to stop importing Russian fossil fuels by 2027 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. However, the publication of the roadmap for this process has been postponed several times, most recently in March 2025.

According to Reuters sources in the European Union, the delays are partly due to uncertainty over US President Donald Trumpʼs tariff policies. Energy trade could be the subject of negotiations between the EU and the US.

Although Russian pipeline gas supplies have declined sharply since 2022, the EU increased its imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) last year. This means that in 2024, Russia will still provide 19% of the EUʼs total gas and LNG supplies.

Unlike oil, the EU has not imposed sanctions on Russian gas imports. Hungary has promised to block any restrictions on Russian energy supplies, as such decisions require unanimous support from EU member states. Some other governments are also reluctant to approve a ban on Russian LNG imports until the EU finds reliable alternatives.

The European Commission has not yet revealed what tools it plans to offer to accelerate energy independence from Russia.

A complete rejection of Russian gas would mean an increase in EU purchases from the US and other suppliers. The European Union has already announced its readiness to increase LNG imports from the US. In turn, US President Donald Trump has said that selling energy resources to Europe will be one of the main tools for reducing the US trade deficit with the EU.

American LNG played a key role in filling Europeʼs gas shortage during the 2022 energy crisis. Last year, the US became the third largest supplier of gas to the EU, after Russia and Norway.

However, some European business groups and diplomats fear that dependence on American gas could become a weak point, especially amid Trumpʼs statements about using energy as a bargaining chip in the tariff negotiation process.

• On his second day in office, Donald Trump urged the EU to buy more gas and oil from the US to avoid tariffs. The US president wants to boost American energy development. He has already declared an energy emergency, lifted a ban on offshore oil and gas leases and unfroze the construction of new LNG export plants.
• However, in early April 2025, the US President Donald Trump reported that he would impose tariffs on goods from other countries. The new tariffs affected more than 180 countries and territories (not including Russia, North Korea, Cuba, and Belarus, which are already under sanctions).
• The European Union was ready to impose mirror tariffs on the US. The corresponding tariffs from Brussels were to come into effect on April 15. However, the day before, Donald Trump announced a 90-day pause with reduced tariffs of 10% for countries, including the EU. Therefore, Europe responded in kind.

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