Brussels (dpa-AFX)-EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced an initiative for a faster stop of all European oil and gas imports from Russia after a conversation with US President Donald Trump. Russia’s war economy finances bloodshed in Ukraine and will maintain fossil fuels through the income from the sale of fossil fuels, the German politician wrote in social networks. In order to put an end to this, the EU Commission will propose to accelerate the exit from Russian fossil imports.
According to the Leyens, the topic of the “constructive phone call” with Trump was further steps to increase the economic pressure on Russia. She again announced the rapid submission of a proposal for the 19th package with EU Russia sanctions. Accordingly, this should be particularly directed against Russia and the energy sector as well as against the use of cryptocurrencies to avoid sanctions.
Von der Leyen did not provide any details of the considerations for a faster exit from Russian energy imports. The current concept from June stipulates that only from 2028 there is no more gas from Russia into the community of states. According to the EU Commission, gas deliveries from Russia accounted for almost 19 percent of all imports in 2024.
According to the commission’s previous plans, oil imports are to be fully stopped by the end of 2027. Despite a significant decline in imports since the beginning of the war, according to EU information in 2024, Russian crude oil still came to the European market after 13 million tons.
Successful prospects are unclear
Trump recently made other United States’ sanctions on the fact that European partners raise high tariffs to Chinese imports and no longer buy Russian oil. However, since it also included NATO country Türkiye, it is now unclear whether an EU initiative is sufficient for him. The reason is that Turkey from Russia receives cheap energy on a large scale and has not yet shown that they want to change something quickly.
Hungary and Slovakia are still receiving a lot of Russian oil from the EU countries. In addition, liquid gas from Russia is still being imported to the EU on a large scale ./aha/dp/nas