EU strikes political agreement to end Russian gas imports, with phased LNG and pipeline cuts tied to energy security and Ukraine sanctions.
On December 3 2025, European Union lawmakers and member states reached a political deal in Brussels to ban all imports of Russian natural gas by autumn 2027. The accord follows months of trilogue talks on a regulation to phase out Russian pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG).
EU energy commissioner Dan Jørgensen hailed the agreement by saying Europe is “turning off the tap on Russian gas, forever.” The deal is described as a provisional agreement between the European Parliament and the Council, which means it still requires formal approval by both institutions before it becomes binding EU law.
Phased ban on LNG and pipeline gas
The gas ban builds on the European Commission’s “Roadmap towards ending Russian energy imports” of May 6 2025, which set a goal of stopping all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027, and on a June 17 2025 legislative proposal to phase out Russian gas and oil.
An updated summary from the European Parliament’s legislative observatory shows that negotiators had already pushed for a ban on Russian gas imports from January 1 2026, with limited exceptions for existing contracts running no later than June 17 2026 for short term deals and January 1 2027 for long term deals. This is provided they were signed before June 17 2025 and not amended. That structure appears in the amended text of the regulation on phasing out Russian natural gas imports.
The gas regulation will sit alongside the EU’s broader sanctions regime. On October 23 2025, the Commission announced the bloc’s 19th sanctions package against Russia, which already introduces a total ban on Russian LNG as of January 1 2027. The new deal is expected to harmonise gas phase out rules with this sanctions timetable. Financial Times reporting also notes that draft enforcement rules include “hefty penalties,” with fines linked to a share of global turnover and absolute euro caps for both companies and individuals, though the full legal text is not yet public.
From near 40 percent dependence to low double digits
Before Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU relied on Russia for around 40 percent of its gas supplies, according to an EU Parliament briefing on Russian energy phase out and a later update in the Parliament’s think tank series.
Since then, Russian gas has been sharply reduced. The Council of the EU’s October 20 2025 “general approach” on the gas regulation states that Russian gas now accounts for about 13 percent of EU gas imports in 2025, worth more than 15 billion euros a year.
Separately, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, citing Council data, notes that Russia supplied about 40 percent of the EU’s piped gas in 2021, but only around 8 percent in 2023, underscoring how far the bloc has already cut reliance on Russian gas.
Replacement volumes now come from a mix of Norwegian pipeline flows, LNG from the United States and Qatar, and rising domestic output in some member states.
