Von Der Leyen Eyes Ending EU’s Russian Energy Reliance by 2027

(Bloomberg) -- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is seeking the political green light from European Union leaders to propose in May measures to phase out dependencies on Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

Von der Leyen outlined her plan to heads of government at their informal summit in Versailles on Thursday, according to a post on Twitter. The commission earlier this week published an overhauled energy strategy aiming to cut reliance on Moscow following President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is the EU’s biggest natural gas supplier, accounting for more than 40% of imports. The EU also relies on the country for the biggest share of its coal and oil import needs.

Under the commission’s energy strategy, named RePowerEU, the bloc could replace nearly two-thirds of gas imports from Moscow already this year through actions such as tapping new supply sources, boosting renewables and accelerating energy savings. For the vision to become reality, in the first step the commission seeks to get the political blessing from national governments to propose detailed regulation to enact the plan.

In mid-May, the EU executive arm also wants to lay out options to improve the electricity market design “in view of structural change towards decarbonisation of the energy mix.” Some countries, including France, have been calling on the EU to rethink the way its power market is constructed to better reflect the share of clean energy sources in their electricity generation.

According to von der Leyen’s plan, at the end of March the commission will present options for emergency measures to limit the contagion effect of gas costs in electricity prices, including temporary price limits. It will also design a plan to refill Europe’s depleted gas reserves for next winter and propose new measures for EU gas storage policy.

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