EU to propose 'phase out' of Russian gas at strategic summit: Michel

The European Council plans to propose the phasing out of Russian gas during an informal summit being held in Versailles, the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said March 10.

In comments ahead of the "strategic" summit taking place March 10-11, Michel said leaders would discuss the concrete decisions that could be taken in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We propose to decide to phase out from the Russian gas," Michel said. "It is very important to give a strong signal of the EU's determination to act."

Michel said the summit would focus on "the concrete decisions we'll take together in the following weeks and months in order to make the EU more robust and less dependent on Russian gas."

In an invitation letter to EU leaders published on the European Council website, Michel said he wanted to focus on three issues at the informal meeting.

These were: bolstering the EU's defense capabilities; reducing its energy dependency, in particular on Russian gas, oil and coal; and building a more robust economic base.

Writing on Twitter ahead of the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said leaders would "chart the way forward", including on phasing out the EU's dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

In a letter to EU leaders ahead of the Versailles summit, Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called for a total EU ban on buying Russian energy.

The EU should ban the import of oil, gas and coal, as well as impose a ban on EU company involvement in Russian projects such as Arctic LNG-2 and halt all R&D projects with Russia concerning hydrogen.

Morawiecki also suggested the EU adopt a roadmap to define the next steps to end the bloc's dependence on Russian energy as soon as possible.

EC plan

The European Commission on March 8 unveiled new energy security proposals that seek to reduce European demand for Russian gas already by two thirds by the end of 2022.

The EC said it also planned to make Europe independent from Russian fossil fuels "well before 2030", starting with gas.

In the shorter term, the EC said it would seek to diversify gas supplies, speed up the roll-out of renewable gases and replace gas in heating and power generation.

EC Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans said Europe was too dependent on Russia for its energy needs. "It is not a free market if there is a state actor willing to manipulate it," Timmermans said.

"By the end of this year, we can replace 100 Bcm of gas imports from Russia -- that is two thirds of what we import from them," he said. "This will end our over-dependency and give us much-needed room for maneuver."

On March 3, the International Energy Agency outlined a 10-point plan for reducing the EU's dependence on Russian gas, saying the EU could reduce its Russian gas imports by more than one third within a year.

In 2021, the EU imported 155 Bcm of Russian gas, accounting for around 45% of EU gas imports and close to 40% of its total gas consumption, the IEA said.

It said its 10-point plan included a range of "complementary" actions that could be taken in the coming months, such as turning increasingly to other suppliers, drawing on other energy sources and accelerating efforts to provide consumers with alternatives to gas.