The EU has decided to impose a complete ban on all fuel imports from Russia starting January 1, 2028.
The European Union (EU) has decided to stop importing fuel from Russia. The EU has decided to impose a complete ban on all types of fuel imports from Russia from January 1, 2028.
The decision was made at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Luxembourg on Monday, international media outlet Al Jazeera reported. According to Al Jazeera, almost all EU member states have supported the European Commission's proposal.
The proposal is a decisive step towards making Europe energy independent, said Danish Energy Minister Lars Aagaard, who holds the presidency of the EU Council. However, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto opposed the proposal, saying it would cause a serious crisis in the energy security of European countries.
The ban will apply to both oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imported through pipelines. Russian gas imports will stop from January 1, 2026. However, short-term contracts that are already in place will be exempted until June 2026. Long-term contracts are said to continue until 2028.
The EU took this step after Russia used gas supplies as a weapon since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war and there were repeated supply disruptions.
The European Union currently imports about 13 percent of its natural gas from Russia, worth about 15 billion euros (about 17.5 billion US dollars) annually.
