{"id":443724,"date":"2026-01-26T11:42:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T10:42:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/01\/26\/via-libera-definitivo-ue-allo-stop-al-gas-russo-entro-lautunno-del-2027\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T16:14:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:14:58","slug":"eu-formally-approves-ban-on-russian-gas-imports-by-autumn-2027","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/01\/26\/eu-formally-approves-ban-on-russian-gas-imports-by-autumn-2027\/","title":{"rendered":"EU formally approves ban on Russian gas imports by autumn 2027"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Brussels &#8211; Today (26 January), the Council of the European Union formally adopted the regulation providing for <strong>the gradual elimination of Russian gas and LNG imports<\/strong> into the EU. Following the interinstitutional agreement reached at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/12\/03\/eu-to-close-the-taps-on-gas-from-russia-by-september-2027\/\">beginning of December<\/a>, the green light from Member States is the final step in the legislative process: once published in the Official Journal, the regulation will enter into force and be directly applicable in all Member States.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>From 30 September 2027, gas imports via pipeline will be banned. Even earlier, at the beginning of 2027, a total ban on LNG imports will come into force. Existing contracts will benefit from a transition period. By 1 March 2026, national governments will have to prepare national plans <strong>to diversify gas supplies and identify potential challenges<\/strong> in replacing Russian gas. Energy companies will be required to notify the authorities and the European Commission of any outstanding Russian gas supply contracts. <\/p>\n<p>The obligation to draft&nbsp;diversification plans also applies to those Member States that continue to import Russian oil, namely,&nbsp;<strong>Hungary and Slovakia<\/strong>, to which the EU had previously granted an exemption.&nbsp;Failure to comply with the new rules may result in <strong>maximum penalties of at least 2.5 million euros<\/strong> for individuals and at least 40 million euros for companies, equivalent to at least 3.5 per cent of the company&#8217;s total worldwide annual turnover or 300 per cent of the estimated turnover of the transaction. In the event of a declared emergency and if security of supply is seriously threatened in one or more EU countries, Brussels may suspend the import ban for up to four weeks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The regulation was approved with Hungary and Slovakia voting against and Bulgaria abstaining. The European Commission emphasised in<a href=\"http:\/\/The%20obligation%20to%20draft%C2%A0diversification%20plans%20also%20applies%20to%20those%20Member%20States%20that%20continue%20to%20import%20Russian%20oil,%20namely,%C2%A0Hungary%20and%20Slovakia,%20to%20which%20the%20EU%20had%20previously%20granted%20an%20exemption.%C2%A0Failure%20to%20comply%20with%20the%20new%20rules%20may%20result%20in%20maximum%20penalties%20of%20at%20least%202.5%20million%20euros%20for%20individuals%20and%20at%20least%2040%20million%20euros%20for%20companies,%20equivalent%20to%20at%20least%203.5%20per%20cent%20of%20the%20company's%20total%20worldwide%20annual%20turnover%20or%20300%20per%20cent%20of%20the%20estimated%20turnover%20of%20the%20transaction.%20In%20the%20event%20of%20a%20declared%20emergency%20and%20if%20security%20of%20supply%20is%20seriously%20threatened%20in%20one%20or%20more%20EU%20countries,%20Brussels%20may%20suspend%20the%20import%20ban%20for%20up%20to%20four%20weeks.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a statement<\/a> that it also intends to propose legislation to phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The regulation was approved with Hungary and Slovakia voting against and Bulgaria abstaining. The Commission is working on legislation to eliminate oil imports from Moscow by the end of 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7527,"featured_media":415452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30800],"tags":[25866,32736,26062,27555],"class_list":["post-443724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-energy-en","tag-phase-out","tag-repowereu-en","tag-gas-russo-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7527"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443724"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443725,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443724\/revisions\/443725"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}