The European Commission intends to develop a new strategy assuming a departure from Russian energy to 2027. The plan will probably be disclosed at the beginning of May, but its details remain unknown.
The European official explained the Reuters agency that the European Commission does not want to risk giving up Russian LNG, because he is afraid that such a movement could weaken its position in tariff negotiations with the United States. He is also afraid of energy addiction to the United States, which after Russia and Norway are the third largest gas supplier to the EU.
At the same time, the European Commission continues to work on the new – 17 – a package of sanctions against Russia. It will probably be presented in June. The sources of the agency, however, note that negotiations over its content are slowly progressing. The idea of baning Russian LNG to the EU was already raised in January during the discussion on the previous, 16th package of limiting funds, but then it was not approved.
US President Donald Trump has previously expressed a desire to increase American gas exports to Europe. Brussels perceives these statements as a possible lever in future commercial negotiations, hoping that they will help to lead the US administration to reduce customs. However, as the Reuters agency notes, Washington has not yet formulated clear conditions.
In the context of escalation, commercial misunderstandings between the USA and the EU, the main European energy companies began to show interest in Russian gas again. Fears of excessive addiction to US supplies are growing because Brussels expects Washington to use LNG export as a political tool. In addition, according to the analyst from Global Risk Management, gas supplies from the US may decrease if the domestic demand in the United States itself increases.
The EU has set itself a goal to completely withdraw fossil fuels from Russia until 2027, which is a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine from 2022. In the meantime, European countries are still increasing LNG purchases from the USA. In 2024 they were responsible for 16.7 percent. import, slightly behind Russian supplies (18.8 percent). However, in the first quarter of 2025, American gas overtook Russian in terms of export to the EU.
