EU Parliament approves preventing imports of Russian LNG

The European Parliament voted on Thursday in favor of adopting rules that would allow European governments to ban imports of Russian liquefied natural gas, by preventing Russian companies from reserving storage space in gas infrastructure.

According to Reuters, the European Union avoided imposing sanctions on Russian gas, which some members rely on heavily.

The new gas import rules aim to create a legal route for governments to block Russian gas supplies to their countries as an alternative solution, although no major importer has so far indicated it will use the new rules.

New EU gas market rules allow governments to temporarily block gas exporters in Russia and Belarus from bidding for the infrastructure capacity needed to deliver pipelined gas and liquefied natural gas to Europe.

Russia reduced gas supplies via pipelines to Europe after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, reducing what was considered the main route for Russian supplies to reach Europe. But Russian liquefied natural gas continues to flow to the continent, mostly through ports in Spain, Belgium and France.

These countries have not confirmed that they will use the new legal option.