The EU has signalled an ending to its dependency on Russian energy by stopping the import of Russian gas and oil and phasing out Russian nuclear energy.
The REPowerEU Roadmap, presented by the European Commission, paves the way to ensure the EU’s full energy independence from Russia, while also ensuring stable energy supplies and prices across the Union.
Despite the REPowerEU Plan and sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, 2024 saw a rebound in Russian gas imports to the EU.
“The war in Ukraine has brutally exposed the risks of blackmail, economic coercion and price shocks,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen: “It is now time for Europe to completely cut off its energy ties with an unreliable supplier. And energy that comes to our continent should not pay for a war of aggression against Ukraine.”
The roadmap sets out a gradual removal of Russian oil, gas and nuclear energy from the EU markets, with measures designed to preserve the security of the EU’s energy supply while limiting any impact on prices and markets.
As of 2025, the global LNG supplies are foreseen to grow rapidly, while gas demand will decrease. With the full implementation of the energy transition framework and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, the EU is expected to replace up to 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas by 2030, which means a decrease in demand by 40-50 bcm by 2027. At the same time, LNG capacities are expected to increase by around 200 bcm by 2028, which is five times more than current EU imports of Russian gas.
The Commission’s new roadmap will be followed next month by its legislative proposals.
The EU executive says it will work with the EU Member States to ensure that the EU-wide phaseout of Russian energy imports will be gradual and well-coordinated across the Union. They will be asked to prepare national plans by the end of this year setting out how they will contribute to phasing out imports of Russian gas, nuclear energy and oil.
As regard gas, the Commission believes the upcoming proposals will improve the ‘transparency, monitoring and traceability of Russian gas across the EU markets’. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas (pipeline and LNG) will be prevented, and existing spot contracts stopped by the end of 2025. This measure will ensure that already by the end of this year, the EU will have slashed by one third remaining supplies of Russian gas. The Commission will further propose to stop all remaining imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027.
Under the Roadmap, the Commission will also put forward new actions to address Russia’s shadow fleet transporting oil. As regards nuclear, the proposals coming next month will include measures on Russian imports of enriched uranium, as well as restrictions on new supply contracts co-signed by the Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) for uranium, enriched uranium and other nuclear materials deriving from Russia. A European Radioisotopes Valley Initiative is also envisaged to secure EU supply of medical radioisotopes through increased own production.
