As the technical meetings continued on Monday 1 December, ahead of the third – and supposedly last – political trilogue on the ‘REPowerEU’ regulation on 2 December, the Council of the EU is cautiously advancing on an early phase-out date of long-term contracts to import Russian gas.
As previously indicated (see EUROPE 13758/7), imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) could be phased-out starting the 1st of January 2027 (instead of 1 January 2028), as requested by the European Parliament, and in a bid to align the phase-out date of the regulation with that of the 19th EU sanctions package, targeting Russian LNG.
In the case of Russian gas imported via pipelines, “an earlier phase-out date, somewhere between February and April 2027, at the end of the heating season”, could satisfy Parliament, which was initially counting on these contracts being terminated on the 1st of January 2027.
However, in a document dated 26 November, the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU stated that “any advance of the phase-out date for Russian pipeline gas should be assessed thoroughly, alongside an evaluation by the Commission of the potential effects on security of supply or prices”.
Suspension clause. The suspension clause in the regulation (Article 15) remains a politically sensitive point. Parliament wants to see it deleted, while the EU Council has expressed its willingness to explore other options, such as including stricter measures to trigger the clause, or applying a ‘sunset’ clause.
Sanctions regime. On the issue of penalties for breaches of the prohibition in the Regulation, the Presidency has proposed the addition of a new article requiring Member States to introduce maximum and minimum penalty regimes.
Russian oil. In order to find a way out of the ban on Russian oil – called for by Parliament in the body of the regulation and rejected by the EU Council – the co-legislators could agree on the need to strengthen national oil diversification plans in the proposal. They could also include an explicit reference to the Russian ‘shadow fleet’ and instruct the Commission to assess the need for additional measures.
Pre-authorisation. With regard to the prior-authorisation mechanism for non-Russian gas imports, the Danish Presidency continues to defend a deadline of five working days for this prior-authorisation, but is looking for “flexible” means of providing additional options for determining the list of countries exempt from this mechanism.
To see these options, in the ‘four-column’ document (dated 27 November) obtained by Agence Europe: https://aeur.eu/f/jry
To see the EU Council’s summary document (dated 26 November): https://aeur.eu/f/jrz (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)