European officials have postponed a ban on imports of russian liquefied natural gas due to uncertainty about alternative sources of supply and resistance from some European government officials, Reuters reported on Thursday, April 17, citing EU officials.
There is no unity in Europe on including a ban on russian natural gas in the next sanctions packages. Instead, the European Commission wants to develop a new roadmap to end the bloc's dependence on energy from the aggressor country of russia by 2027. This plan is expected to be announced in early May.
"One of the officials said that the European Commission does not want to risk losing russian LNG to sanctions and thereby give up its negotiating power," the article says.
In addition, the European Commission and EU governments are also afraid of becoming dependent on the United States, which is the third largest supplier of gas to the European Union after russia and Norway.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the European Union spent EUR 22 billion in 2024 on the purchase of gas and oil from the aggressor state of russia, while it allocated EUR 19 billion for financial assistance to Ukraine.
On February 24, the European Union introduced the 16th package of sanctions against the aggressor state of russia on the third anniversary of the full-scale war.
As a reminder, in January, 10 European Union countries proposed to strengthen sanctions against the aggressor state of russia by introducing further restrictions on natural gas.
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