EU insists on zero Russian gas reliance by 2025 deadline

- The EU can manage without Russian gas, asserted Kadri Simson, the commissioner overseeing energy issues, after the EU Council meeting in Luxembourg. She emphasized that although some countries still purchase it in large quantities, efforts are being made with these countries to achieve zero transit by January 1, 2025.

The European Commission aims to phase out Russian gas from the Community by 2025. "The EU can manage without Russian gas, but there are countries that continue to buy it in large quantities," said Kadri Simson after the EU Energy Council meeting in Luxembourg.

She highlighted that the European Commission is cooperating with these countries to achieve zero transit by January 1, 2025, according to "Kommiersant".

The main countries affected are Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, and partly the Czech Republic, which still rely on Russian resources.

As reported by money.pl, Ukraine has been stating for months that the agreement with Gazprom for the transit of Russian gas through its territory expires at the end of 2024, and there will be no further negotiations with the invader. This means gas from the East will not flow to Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic via the southern "Friendship" pipeline.

Resources from Norway and the USA are gradually replacing Russian gas. These countries have become the largest fuel suppliers to the EU, providing 34% and 18% of the gas imports into the Community in the first half of 2024.

In response to disruptions in the global energy market caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission launched the REPowerEU plan, which aims to gradually phase out Russian fossil fuel imports.

The initiative started in May 2022, seeks to help the EU save energy, diversify its supplies, and produce energy from ecological sources.

The EU commissioner admitted that the volume of Russian gas deliveries to Europe this year might surpass the figures from 2023. In her opinion, the trend of increasing deliveries intensified in October, but it's not too late to stop. "Since 2022, we have been reducing this import every year. We cannot allow 2024 to break this trend," she said.

The import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) remains a significant issue. Russia has used European ports to transship gas onto other vessels, transporting it to other locations, such as Asia. The 14th package of EU sanctions, adopted in June, forbade this transshipment. However, the restrictions did not lead to a ban on Russian LNG imports.

Nevertheless, according to a report published in September by the European Commission, the share of gas from Russia in EU imports, which had significantly dropped in the last two years, is rising again in 2024.

The share of natural gas in EU imports was 18% from January to June 2024, increasing compared to 2023, when this indicator was 15%. Russian LNG was also not fully subjected to sanctions.