European Commission Delays Plan to Phase Out Russian Energy Imports
The EU had itself set an ambitious deadline to ban Russian natural gas imports by 2027 following the Russian invasion on Ukraine.
The European Commission has delayed its long awaited proposal to end Russian energy imports for the second time. Scheduled to be made public on March 26th the release date is left undetermined. The delay came after an initial postponement in February.
Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen had initially pledged to put forward the plan in his first 100 days in office but now a longer timeline has been set. The EU had itself set an ambitious deadline to ban Russian natural gas imports by 2027 following the Russian invasion on Ukraine in 2022 but developments have been slow with some of its member states yet to diversify their energy mix. In fact, Russian gas imports increased last year.
The EU has the tricky task of balancing energy security with competitiveness against global competitors such as China and the US where the cost of energy is much cheaper.
