European Union: Russian gas withdrawal plan looks difficult

A few months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine , on the 24th As early as February 2022, Europeans were already discussing the need to completely do away with Russian energy, on which they were highly dependent and which allowed Moscow to finance its war. It took them more than three years to finally develop a plan to achieve this. The Commission presented it on Tuesday, May 6, and intends to translate it into binding legislative proposals in June, which will then have to be validated by the Member States and the European Parliament.

In truth, the Twenty-Seven have already significantly reduced their imports of Russian hydrocarbons. In August 2022, they stopped buying Russian coal, which then accounted for half of their consumption. In December of the same year, they renounced 90% of their oil imports. Landlocked Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have been granted continued supply through the Russian Druzhba pipeline while they find an alternative solution.

Since then, Prague has taken its own measures, unlike Budapest and Bratislava, whose leaders have displayed their closeness to Vladimir Putin. And Moscow has been able to put in place mechanisms to circumvent the sanctions, which have softened the impact of the EU embargo. But, ultimately, it has borne fruit: Russian oil now represents 3% of European imports, compared to 27% before the war.

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