Negotiators in the European Parliament and the Council (governments) have reached a political agreement to end all Russian gas imports in 2027. The disengagement will begin gradually with the LNG cut-off, which will peak no later than 31 December 2026, leaving the final cancellation of the rest of pipeline gas imports to September 2027.
“It is a historic day,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen celebrated in an intervention without questions early Wednesday, alongside Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen and International Energy Agency (IEA) Executive Director Fatih Birol. The agreement reached by the negotiators still needs formal approval from the plenary session of the 27th European Chamber to be formally adopted and entered into force, Europe Press reported.
The European Commissioner stressed, “Today we say: Nothing more and it will never happen again. We will never return to dangerous dependence on Russia, nor to volatile supplies, nor to market manipulation, nor to blackmail in the field of energy and economic exposure,” stressing that Europe is moving towards “a new energy security future,” based on “clean, owned and affordable” energy.
Jørgensen also explained that the agreement will be implemented in a “careful, gradual and coordinated” manner, such that all new contracts, short- and long-term, will be banned six months after the agreement enters into force. From now on, the permanent veto will be gradually applied to contracts already in place.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Mizzola, praised the agreement in a statement. He stressed, “This decision strikes at the heart of the Russian war financing machine and strengthens Europe’s energy security in the long term. This is how we protect Europe’s energy future, and this is what real support for Ukraine looks like.”
Therefore, the first step will affect short-term contracts signed before June 17, 2025, which will become prohibited from April 25, 2026 if for LNG, and from June 17, 2026 if for gas pipelines.
For long-term contracts for LNG imports concluded before June 17, 2025, the ban will apply from January 1, 2027, in line with the 19th sanctions package. The break is scheduled to be completed no later than September 30, 2027, with the end of gas imports through the pipeline.
However, the agreement provides guarantees for countries facing difficulties in filling the required storage levels, as it may postpone the gas pipeline ban until November 2027.
Therefore, November 1 will be the maximum deadline to stop imports if an extension is granted.
The negotiations, which concluded in the early hours of the morning, also confirmed that the Commission remains committed to phasing out all oil imports by the end of 2027.
Along with ending European purchases of Russian gas, the agreement also provides for the phasing out of oil imports from Russia, although there are no clear deadlines at the moment – although only Hungary and Slovakia will continue to rely on Russian crude oil. In this context, Member States will have to submit national diversification plans with clear measures for their domestic supplies of oil and gas by 1 March 2026.
They must also notify the Commission within one month of the regulation coming into force if they have Russian gas supply contracts or a national legal ban in place. The Committee will conduct an evaluation of the plans and make recommendations, where appropriate, no later than three months after receipt of the plans.
Hungary has pressured the Commission to continue its purchases of Russian oil, appealing to energy security, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban even raised the issue with US President Donald Trump.
Brussels is scheduled to submit a legislative proposal in this regard at the beginning of next year.
“We are turning the page and doing so forever,” von der Leyen celebrated. “This is the dawn of a new era, the era of Europe’s complete energy independence from Russia.” According to the figures of the head of the Union’s executive body, imports of liquefied natural gas and gas through Russian gas pipelines decreased from 45% at the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine to 13% now, while oil imports decreased from 26% to 2% and coal from 51% to zero.
Von der Leyen noted that in addition to strengthening the EU’s energy independence, stopping purchases of Russian fossil fuels also reduces the revenues that Moscow uses to fuel the war.
The German said: “At the beginning of the war, we paid Russia 12 billion euros a month for fossil fuels. We have fallen to 1.5 billion, which is still a large number. The goal is to reduce it to zero.”
The Commission explained that European Union countries will have to submit national plans by March 1, 2026 at the latest, “outlining the measures necessary to diversify their supplies of oil and gas.”
In the weeks after the EU regulation comes into force, they will have to notify the European Commission if they have Russian gas supply contracts or a national legal ban in force.
The agreement also includes anti-evasion provisions that will be added to the monitoring and control already conducted at Customs; As well as measures to increase transparency, monitoring and traceability of Russian gas in EU markets.