The EU postpones the adoption of the proposal that permanently bans oil imports from Russia
The European Commission will no longer present, on April 15, as originally planned, a legislative proposal regarding the definitive ban on Russian oil imports, according to an updated legislative agenda published on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
However, an EU official told Reuters that the proposal had not been scrapped and would still be published, although not as early as mid-April, due to “current geopolitical developments”.
The decision comes as the war in Iran is causing the worst oil shortage in history, according to the International Energy Agency, sending global crude prices soaring.
The proposal to be presented on April 15 would enshrine in law the complete phasing out of Russian oil imports by the end of 2027 at the latest. The European Union has already passed a law on the phasing out of gas imports from Russia by the end of 2027.
The move will have little immediate impact on physical supplies, as the EU was importing just 1% of its oil from Russia until the last quarter of 2025, after sharply cutting imports following the outbreak of war in 2022.
But Brussels wants to enshrine the complete elimination of Russian oil in legislation that will remain in place even if a peace deal in the Ukraine war eventually leads to the lifting of EU sanctions.
EU sanctions on sea-borne Russian oil have already wiped out most of the bloc's imports.
Hungary and Slovakia were the only two EU countries still importing Russian oil on January 27, when Kiev said a Russian drone strike hit a key oil pipeline for Russian supplies.
