The European Commission has presented a roadmap to ensure the EU fully ends its dependency on Russian energy, while ensuring stable energy supplies and prices across the EU.
The European Union has significantly reduced its reliance on Russian gas, cutting imports from 45% to 19% since the launch of the REPowerEU Plan in May 2022. The initiative was aimed at decreasing the EU’s energy dependence on Russia. However, in 2024, Russian gas imports experienced a rebound, according to European Commission.
"The message to Russia is clear: No more shall Euros go into your war chest. Your gas will be banned. Your shadow fleet will be stopped.” We do this to preserve our security. But it is also an important step towards becoming energy independent. Producing our own clean affordable energy instead of importing expensive fossils fuels," - said Dan Jørgensen, Commissioner for Energy and Housing.
The new roadmap will see a gradual removal of Russian oil, gas and nuclear energy from the EU markets in a coordinated and secure manner as the EU transitions to clean energy.
EU countries will prepare national plans by the end of 2025 setting out how they will contribute to phasing out imports of Russian gas, nuclear energy and oil. At the same time, efforts will continue to accelerate the EU’s energy transition and diversify energy supplies to eliminate risks to the security of supply and market stability.
The roadmap includes measures to:
gas: stop all imports of Russian gas by the end of 2027 by improving the transparency, monitoring and traceability of Russian gas across the EU markets. New contracts with suppliers of Russian gas will be prevented and spot contracts (for immediate payment) will be stopped by the end of 2025.
oil: take fresh action to address Russia's ‘shadow fleet’ (vessels employed by Russia to evade sanctions) transporting oil
nuclear: restrict new supply contracts co-signed by the Euratom Supply Agency for uranium, enriched uranium and other nuclear materials deriving from Russia.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: "The war in Ukraine has brutally exposed the risks of blackmail, economic coercion and price shocks. With REPowerEU, we have diversified our energy supply and drastically reduced Europe's former dependency on Russian fossil fuels. 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. We owe this to our citizens, to our companies and to our brave Ukrainian friends."
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.
Today's roadmap will be followed by legislative proposals by the Commission next month.
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