Calls for EU executive to present promised Russian oil ban bill

The European Commission is under growing pressure to finally table legislation that would ban Russian oil imports, as a show of commitment while some G7 countries waver on their sanctions regime.

Moscow has had a good week: oil is solidly stuck at above $100 a barrel, and with the Persian Gulf closed some G7 countries appear ready to buy Russian again. On Monday, the US extended a sanctions waiver; the UK followed suit on Tuesday.

Russian fossil fuel revenues grew by 4% in April to more than €733 million per day – “the highest revenues in two and a half years”, according to Helsinki-based think tank CREA.

Brussels has so far said it will stick to its sanctions regime – but has been dithering on pushing through a permanent, legal ban which it said would come “at the beginning of 2026”. 

“The hesitation of the Commission is playing into the hands of Russia and its war economy,” said Ville Niinistö, a Green MEP from Finland who negotiated the EU’s recently adopted law banning gas imports.

“A legal ban on Russian oil imports as promised is even more important now as there is erosion in the global sanctions,” Niinistö told Euractiv. 

Before it was removed from the EU executive’s provisional agenda, the bill was last slated for publication on 15 April before it was removed without comment.

“We hope that it will be presented this year, because previously the plan has been to have this by April,” said Žygimantas Vaičiūnas, Lithuania’s energy minister. Did the global oil crisis cause doubt in Brussels? 

“There’s some part of that,” Vaičiūnas told Euractiv in an interview last week. “We trust that the proposal will be presented at the right time.”

A Commission spokesperson said its focus was “on taking immediate actions” given the Iran energy shock. “But we will finish the remaining work on RepowerEU, and the goal remains to table a proposal on oil imports, too,” they told Euractiv.

(rh)