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BRUSSELS: EU countries on Monday agreed to phase out their remaining gas imports from Russia by the end of 2027, breaking a dependency the bloc has struggled to end despite Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
Energy ministers meeting in Luxembourg approved a plan by the European Commission to phase out both pipeline gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from Russia, subject to approval by the bloc’s parliament.
Lars Aagaard, energy minister of Denmark, which holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, called it a “crucial” step to make Europe energy independent.
The plan is part of a broader EU strategy to wean the bloc off Russian energy supplies.
“Although we have worked hard and pushed to get Russian gas and oil out of Europe in recent years, we are not there yet,” Aagaard said.
The commission is in parallel pushing for LNG imports to be phased out one year earlier, by January 2027, as part of a new package of sanctions aimed at sapping Moscow’s war chest.
But sanctions need unanimous approval from the EU’s 27 nations, which has at times been hard to reach.
Trade restrictions like those approved Monday instead require the backing of a weighted majority of 15 countries.
All but Hungary and Slovakia, which are diplomatically closer to the Kremlin and still import Russian gas via pipeline, supported the latest move, according to diplomats.
“The real impact of this regulation is that our safe supply of energy in Hungary is going to be killed,” Budapest’s top diplomat, Peter Szijjarto, told reporters.
His government says the landlocked country needs to import gas from Russia due to geographical constraints.
Under the proposal approved Monday, which is expected to win the support of the European Parliament, Russian gas imports under new contracts will be banned as of January 1, 2026.
Existing contracts will benefit from a transition period, with inflows under short-term contracts allowed until June 17 next year and those under long-term contracts until January 1, 2028.
Although gas imports from Russia via pipeline have fallen sharply since the invasion of Ukraine, several European countries have increased their purchases of Russian (LNG) transported by sea.
Russian gas still accounts for an estimated 13 percent of EU imports in 2025, worth over 15 billion euros annually, according to Brussels

Venezuela, casting around for income amid US sanctions, recently restarted coal production with a Turkish company and is looking to export more than 10 million tons of the fuel this year, company sources say.
But the mining is occurring without environmental safeguards, polluting local air and water, according to a company source with knowledge of the operations, Indigenous leaders and members of local communities.
Venezuela’s government has touted what it says is economic growth of 8.7 percent in the third quarter, although many international companies have long since abandoned the country, where inflation is expected to reach some 200 percent this year and foreign oil companies must seek US licenses to operate.
Coal, however, is exempt from sanctions, paving the way for the reactivation of joint venture Carboturven, a partnership between Venezuela’s state-owned Carbozulia and the Turkish company Glenmore Dis Ticaret Ve Madencilik A.S.
The coal mining ramp-up echoes other attempts by the government of President Nicolas Maduro to diversify the OPEC member’s economy away from oil. It is the latest example of coal mining persisting in Latin America, even as countries like Chile pivot to renewable energy.

COAL PUSH FOR STATE COFFERS
“It’s time to join forces in the construction of a prosperous country,” Maduro said earlier this year, adding that the coal push will accelerate growth.
Carbozulia formed the Carboturven joint venture with Glenmore in 2018. According to five sources within the company, production at two mines, Paso Diablo and Mina Norte in the northwest of the country, resumed in late December 2024 after being suspended for several years.
Maduro has also approved plans to develop another coal project in Falcon state.
Venezuela’s coal production stood at around 3 million tons in the first quarter of 2025, according to data from Carbozulia, putting the nation on track to surpass its 8 million ton annual output of the early 2000s.
Venezuela’s high-energy, cleaner-burning coal is almost entirely sold for export.
Venezuela provides raw coal to Turkiye, which sells it elsewhere in Europe, said one employee at Paso Diablo who asked to remain anonymous, adding that the goal was to export 10 million metric tons annually.
However, recent strikes on boats by the US military in the Caribbean have halted exports, the employee said, and forced a halt to production as of a week ago, when the company ran out of storage space.
Neither Venezuela’s government nor Carbozulia responded to repeated requests for comment. Reuters was unable to immediately contact Carboturven, which has no website, or its Turkish partner.
Trading tracker Import Genius shows Glenmore is registered as an exporter of bituminous coal from Palmarejo, in Zulia state.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Environmental groups, including local non-profit Sociedad Homo et Natura, say the mines spew sulfate, lead, cadmium, cyanide and mercury into the Guasare River.
At least 12 Indigenous and rural farming communities have been displaced by mining in recent years, Sociedad Homo et Natura and other groups say, adding that they fear more could be affected by a coal expansion.
“They are trying to get their hands on everything they can,” said Sociedad Homo et Natura coordinator and Indigenous leader Lusbi Portillo.
A Carbozulia environmental document dated this year and seen by Reuters lists possible mitigation measures for coal mining, including runoff treatment, emissions controls, a dust suppression system and sprinklers over stockpiles and conveyor belts, but it was not immediately clear which, if any, are in place at the mines.
The Paso Diablo worker said there was a lack of environmental control. Previously, monitors installed in each community had measured environmental contamination but they were no longer operational, said the employee.
Residents who live near the mines say coal dust is damaging crops and homes.
“You can’t live here anymore,” said an elderly woman from a community near Paso Diablo in a phone interview.
“We have coal on the plants, in our houses, on our clothes, in the water, and we get no benefit from it,” she said, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Residents shared images with Reuters that showed people’s feet stained with coal dust and blackened drinking water containers and houses.
“We are poor communities that live by herding, and the animals are dying from the dust,” an Indigenous person from La Guajira said, referring to the goats which are key to the community’s economic survival. “We live in extreme poverty surrounded by coal wealth.”