EU forced to delay the ban on Russian oil

A planned law which would have permanently banned the importation of Russian oil into the European Union has been put on hold because of the continued global instability caused by the ongoing conflict in Iran, and its impact on international fuel market prices.

The postponement is influenced by the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which have upended energy markets and disrupted traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passage that carries a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas every day, according to Euronews.

Currently, only two of the EU's 27 member states, Hungary and Slovakia, still buy oil from Russia, transported through a pipeline dating back to the era of the Soviet Union.

The European Commission had scheduled the new legislation, as part of a program called the REPowerEU roadmap, to be introduced in mid-April, but it has now been withdrawn, without an alternative date having been set.

"I do not have a new date to give," said the Commission's spokesperson for energy, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, on Tuesday. "What I can reassure you of is that we remain committed to making this proposal … the proposal will be made."

REPowerEU is a vision of a new energy strategy for the EU first put forward in 2022, when the continent was rocked by the outbreak of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and its impact on energy prices.

As part of it, imports of Russian liquefied natural gas and pipeline gas will be forbidden by the end of 2026 and 2027 respectively, and a document published by the European Commission in December said that since the outbreak of the conflict, EU dependency on Russian gas had fallen from 45 percent of overall imports to just 12 percent in 2025.

From a legislative point of view, the issue is regarded as energy policy, rather than a foreign policy issue, which means it does not need a unanimous majority to be passed, despite the fact that Hungary and Slovakia are challenging the ban on gas imports. A similar ban on crude oil is likely to come later this year, according to the Politico news outlet.

The two countries are also in dispute with Ukraine about the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude oil through Ukrainian territory.

It is currently shut, with Ukraine saying it is damaged, but Hungary and Slovakia say it has been closed down for political reasons. This dispute is delaying the release of a 90 billion-euro ($104 billion) loan from the EU to Ukraine.

According to the Moscow Times website, Russia has offered to resume supplying oil and gas to Europe since attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran at the end of February sent world markets into turmoil, and caused surges in energy prices.

But European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said a U-turn over the policy of shunning Russian energy supplies would be a "strategic blunder".