Documents show that EU lawmakers are looking to phase out Russian gas faster.

Documents seen by revealed that the European Parliament is examining proposals to accelerate the EU's phase-out of Russian gas by an additional year, until January 2027. Officials in Brussels are preparing to negotiate the legally binding ban.

European Union legislators and countries are preparing for negotiations on the EU plan to ban the imports of Russian Gas. The starting point is a legal proposal made by the European Commission last month, which aims to eliminate all Russian gas imports before January 1, 2028.

Documents detailing the amendments they made to the Commission's proposal revealed that the lead legislators in the Parliament on the Russian Gas Ban have all proposed to move this deadline forward to January 1, 2020.

Inese Viadere, a member of the European People's Party (the largest group of legislators in the Parliament), and Ville Niinisto, a Green MEP, are the two EU legislators who have made the proposals.

Diplomats in EU countries say it is unlikely that governments will agree to move the Russian gas embargo forward by one year, but EU legislators could use this request as leverage to get other changes made to the negotiations.

Vaidere, for example, has proposed that governments impose sanctions on companies who violate the ban. This could include revoking licenses for energy trading. Niinisto is calling for a complete ban on Russian oil imports starting January 1, 2027. This was not proposed by the European Commission.

In the fall, the European Parliament will vote to confirm its position in negotiations with EU member states on the ban.

Final measures require approval by the European Parliament and a majority of EU member countries. This means that Hungary and Slovakia cannot block them, as they still import Russian gas through pipelines and are opposed to the EU plans.

After the 2022 invasion by Russia of Ukraine, the EU has promised to terminate decades-old relations with Europe's former largest gas supplier.

The proposed ban would allow the EU to phase out Russian gas imports earlier, starting in January 2026, under new, short-term contracts.

Last year, about 19% of Europe’s gas was imported from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline. This share will fall to 13% by 2025 from 45% in the past. (Reporting and editing by Kate Abnett)

(source: Reuters)