EU fails to agree on sanctions on Russian LNG, Reuters reports
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The EU has shelved the idea of banning Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) imports due to opposition from some members and uncertainty about alternative supplies, Reuters reported on April 16, citing undisclosed EU officials.
This means that restrictions on Russian LNG are unlikely to be part of the EU's upcoming 17th sanctions package.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe began to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels to avoid financing the Kremlin’s war chest.
Despite these efforts, Europe's imports of Russian LNG, which is largely not subject to sanctions, have soared to record levels in 2024. A ban on Russian LNG has been debated for months, but the members have struggled to find consensus on the issue.
U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed for the EU to start purchasing U.S. LNG instead, but details of such a potential deal remain unclear.
As economic relations between the U.S. and the EU sour over Trump's new sweeping tariffs, Brussels wants to use Russian LNG supplies as leverage in trade talks with Washington, a European Commission official told Reuters.
The EU is also careful not to create a dependency on the U.S. either, according to the news agency. Trump's sweeping import duties on much of the world, as well as a foreign policy pivot away from European partners and embrace of Moscow, raise concerns in Europe that Washington is no longer a reliable partner.
The European bloc plans to completely phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027, and the European Commission is expected to provide a plan by May 6 – a deadline postponed from March amid uncertainty over Trump's tariffs.
