At the informal meeting of energy ministers on Thursday 4 and Friday 5 September, discussions took place “alongside” on the progress of the REPowerEU regulation for a definitive end to all Russian gas imports into the EU by 2028. This came as a new revision of the draft compromise by the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU was circulating, obtained by Agence Europe and published on the evening of 4 September.
In particular, it deletes Articles 5 and 6 relating to the ban on providing long-term LNG terminal services to Russian entities, in order to meet Belgium’s demand. This means that the regulation as it stands does not cover services provided by LNG system operators to Russian entities, such as unloading, storage or regasification.
The national energy experts will examine this new text on Tuesday 9 September.
To view it: https://aeur.eu/f/iay
Continued dependence on Russia. The EU still imports gas from Russia at a rate of 13% of its consumption, with a further figure of almost €3 billion in the second quarter of 2025.
The Danish Minister for Climate and Energy, Lars Aagaard, hopes to reach an agreement, as planned, at the next formal Energy Council on 20 October.
The European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jorgensen, said he was “confident” that the text would be adopted, hoping that it would enter into force on 1 January 2026 in order to send “a very strong signal to the whole world, in particular Russia”.
However, Slovakia and Hungary are still firmly opposed to the new regulation and, more broadly, to the European Commission’s intention to get rid of all Russian fossil fuels by the end of 2027. In particular, most of their oil needs are still covered by Russian imports, via the Druzhba pipeline, which was temporarily interrupted following Ukrainian attacks in Russia at the end of August.
Faced with the Slovakian and Hungarian positions, the Finnish Minister for Climate and the Environment, Sari Multala, told the press that it would be “very useful if the countries of Eastern Europe were to see (...) that this is the way we are going to go more energy self-sufficiency and also security”.
Protecting energy infrastructures. However, the Lithuanian Energy Minister, Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, acknowledged that the landlocked countries faced different conditions and felt that additional efforts needed to be made to support these countries.
He also emphasised the need for greater protection of the EU’s critical energy infrastructures, in particular by providing for a separate budget line in the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) dedicated to the protection of critical energy infrastructures.
Also present at the meeting, Ukrainian Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak reiterated that “energy security is in the interests of all countries - Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary”.
On the same day, a meeting took place between the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, specifically on the subject of energy infrastructure.
Mr Andarak explained: “We have the possibility to transport fuels, not only from Russia but also from other directions, we have the biggest underground gas storages in Europe. There are definitely options for those countries [Slovakia and Hungary, ed.] to look at”.
EU-US agreement. Alongside this informal meeting, the ministers also discussed the trade agreement between the EU and the United States, in particular the commitments to purchase energy worth $750 billion over three years. Many experts and members of civil society have indicated that this amount is unrealistic (see EUROPE 13691/7, 13701/20).
However, Commissioner Dan Jørgensen expressed his satisfaction that this agreement - which envisages in particular an increase in imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and American nuclear fuels and technologies - is taking shape against a backdrop of ending dependence on Russian gas.
On Thursday 11 September, in Brussels, he will hold his first talks on this subject with the US Energy Secretary, Chris Wright.
Network development. More broadly, the first discussion session of the second day of the informal meeting was devoted to the development of the post-2030 architecture for energy policy.
This was followed by a working lunch on the energy sector’s contribution to digitalisation and artificial intelligence.
The afternoon session focused on the obstacles to the development of energy infrastructure. It was the first opportunity for ministers to discuss their expectations of the European Commission’s future network package, expected by the end of the year (see EUROPE 13640/17). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)