EU to fully phase out Russian energy imports starting February 3

The REPowerEU regulation to ban Russian energy imports goes into effect tomorrow, February 3. The first contracts will be cancelled starting April 25, in hopes of phasing out energy imports from Russia by 2027. 

"As regards the REPower regulation, which has indeed been published today in the Official Journal, this means that it will start to apply as of tomorrow”, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokesperson for the European Commission, said in response to a question from European Pravda.

The regulation sets the following restrictions:

From 25 April 2026: short-term contracts for liquefied natural gas (LNG) are banned

From 17 June 2026: short-term contracts for pipeline gas are banned

From 1 January 2027: long-term contracts for LNG imports are banned

From 30 September 2027: imports of pipeline gas under long-term contracts are banned.

Hungary is challenging the regulation before the European Court of Justice. Slovakia is also expected to challenge the law in court.

"Today, we took legal action before the European Court of Justice to challenge the REPowerEU regulation banning the import of Russian energy and request its annulment," Hungary's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó said on X.

Source: commonspace.eu with European Pravda and Politico

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