“Threat for Europe” – EU plan is: from 2028 from Russian gas!

The EU committee has submitted a plan for a complete stop of the Russian Gas Import VAB 2028. According to the EU committee, gas deliveries from Russia accounted for nearly 19 percent of all imports in 2024.

Exceptions in the case of a stock crisis possible
According to the proposal, the import must gradually be forbidden “to ensure market and delivery stability”. For long -term delivery contracts, the prohibition must therefore apply from 1 January 2028. The committee wants to prohibit the import of gas as part of short -term contracts in a year, ie from 17 June 2026. Based on new contracts that are still being concluded, no Russian gas should be introduced from January 1.

EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen promised that no EU country “would remain without energy as a result of this proposal”. “If the protection of the security of one or more member states is threatened,” the Commission can temporarily suspend the prohibition according to the proposal text.

Gas ban should have a majority decision
From a legal point of view, the Brussels proposals on Tuesday are not new sanctions, in contrast to an impact locking on Russian oil. Instead, the committee relies on an article in the basic contracts. It states that EU legislation “must guarantee the security of energy supply in the Union”.

The EU committee wants to deal with a possible veto through Hungary and Slovakia. Unlike in the case of sanctions, the new legislative proposal does not have to be unanimously decided. Instead, a majority of at least 15 countries is sufficient in the Council of the EU countries, which together form at least 65 percent of the EU population. The majority of the European Parliament must also agree.

Austria causes unrest
However, the Austrian attitude in the issue of gas import is currently causing unrest in the EU. A report from the Financial Times newspaper quoted the State Secretary for Austria, Elisabeth Zehetner (ÖVP) on Tuesday that the EU should be open again after the end of the war for the resumption of the import of gas from Russia. “A very unclean idea,” Jørgensen commented on the proposal.

EU sees Russian gas as a danger
He emphasized: “The import of gas from Russia is a safety threat for Europe.” The background of the project is the Russian attack war against Ukraine, which has been going on since February 2022. As a result, the EU has issued extensive import bans for Russian energy sources such as coal and oil. So far there have been no gas opportunities as a result of dependencies. As a liquid gas (LNG) and via the Turkstream pipeline, gas is currently still in the community.

According to an analysis of the authority, the remaining gas quantities could expire without risks for the security of delivery. There are enough alternative providers on the global gas market.

Nevertheless, the Commission proposal contains a kind of security clause “to prevent sudden and important developments on the gas market that seriously jeopardize the protection of the supply of one or more member states”. Under these circumstances, the Commission could allow one or more EU countries to suspend the affected import bans for gas. “Such an approval must be limited on time and the committee can impose additional conditions to ensure that the suspension is strictly limited to dealing with the threat.”

Russian gas and oil in the EU
The German company Sefe (Energy for Europe GmbH) plays an important role in the import of LNG into the EU. According to a report from the start of the year, Sefe imported more than six times as much LNG in the European Union last year. According to this, 5.66 billion cubic meters from Sefe from Russia has imported liquid gas into the French Dunkirk on the English canal.

In addition, the Commission presented plans for a complete stop of imports of Russian oil until the end of 2027. Because despite a significant decrease in import since the start of the war in 2024, the information came to the European market after 13 million tonnes of Russian crude oil.

Austria causes unrest
But the Austrian attitude in the issue of gas import also causes unrest in the EU. A report from the Financial Times newspaper quoted the State Secretary for Austria, Elisabeth Zehetner (ÖVP) on Tuesday that the EU should be open again after the end of the war for the resumption of the import of gas from Russia. “A very uniform idea,” noted EU Commissioner Jorgensen.