Austria Urges EU to Keep Option Open for Resuming Russian Gas Imports

The European Union should keep the possibility of resuming imports of Russian gas open in the event of a peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine, Austria’s Ministry of Energy stated. This was reported by the Financial Times. “Brussels must keep the option of reassessing the situation after the end of the war,” Austria’s Ministry of Energy said in a comment to the newspaper, according to epravda.com.ua. The statement confirmed reports that Secretary of State for Energy Elisabeth Köstinger called on her EU colleagues during a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday to consider the possibility of resuming imports of Russian gas. This was reported by diplomats familiar with the course of the negotiations. This is the first time since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 that an EU country – other than Hungary or Slovakia – has publicly spoken about the possibility of returning to purchases of Russian gas after the end of the war. At the same time, the European Commission is expected to propose as early as Tuesday a ban on new gas contracts with Russia and the termination of existing ones within the next two years – regardless of the outcome of any peace negotiations. EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen stated on Monday that even in the event of a peace agreement, resuming imports of Russian gas would not be acceptable. “It would be a very foolish decision that would simply refill Putin’s war chest. It would mean repeating the mistakes of the past,” he said. Unlike coal, the import of which the EU banned in 2022, and the G7 price caps on oil, gas is not subject to official EU sanctions.