By Kate Abnett
BRUSSELS, Jan 26 (Reuters) – European Union countries on Monday gave their final approval to ban Russian gas imports by late 2027, making their vow to cut ties with their former top supplier legally binding, nearly four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ministers from EU countries approved the law at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, although Slovakia and Hungary voted against and Bulgaria abstained.
Hungary said it would challenge the law at the European Court of Justice.
The ban was designed to be approved by a reinforced majority of countries, allowing it to overcome opposition from Hungary and Slovakia, who remain heavily reliant on Russian energy imports and want to maintain close ties with Moscow.
Under the agreement, the EU will halt Russian liquefied natural gas imports by end-2026 and pipeline gas by September 30, 2027.
The law allows that deadline to shift to November 1, 2027, at the latest, if a country is struggling to fill its storage caverns with non-Russian gas ahead of winter.
Russia supplied more than 40% of the EU’s gas before 2022. That share dropped to around 13% in 2025, according to the latest available EU data.
But some EU countries continue to pay Moscow for oil, pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas, contradicting their efforts to support Ukraine and restrict funding to Russia’s wartime economy.
LAW BANS NEW GAS DEALS
Last month, the five biggest EU importers spent 1.4 billion euros ($1.66 billion) on Russian energy, mostly on gas and LNG, data from the non-profit Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air showed. Hungary was the biggest buyer, before France and Belgium.
The EU imposed sanctions on Russian seaborne oil in 2022, but never proposed sanctions on gas imports, which would require unanimous approval from all 27 EU countries.
The EU law prohibits companies from signing new Russian gas deals and will require those with existing contracts to terminate them to comply with the ban.
For existing contracts, imports under short-term deals signed before June 17, 2025, will be banned on April 25, 2026, for LNG, and June 17 for pipeline gas. Long-term contracts must be phased out by the final deadlines.
Companies could face financial penalties of up to 3.5% of total global annual turnover for failure to comply.
The European Commission plans to also propose legislation in the coming months to phase out Russian pipeline oil, and wean countries off Russian nuclear fuel.
($1 = 0.8432 euros)
(Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Bart Meijer and Sharon Singleton)
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