The European Commission wants to present a legislative proposal at the beginning of 2026 to ban the remaining imports of Russian oil into the European Union (EU), closing what it describes as the “final chapter” of Moscow’s energy dependence, at a time when Brussels is also accelerating a plan to reinforce electrical networks and cross-border interconnections.
According to Jornal de Negócios, the topic was confirmed this Monday by the European Commissioner for Energy and Housing, Dan Jørgensen, on the sidelines of the Energy Council, framing the initiative within a European strategy for energy security and reducing vulnerabilities after the war in Ukraine.
The proposal for oil comes just days after a European agreement to eliminate imports of Russian gas, with a calendar that points to the end of LNG by the end of 2026 and gas through pipelines by September 30, 2027, still depending on formal steps in the legislative process.
What’s on the table and why now
According to the commissioner himself, the Commission intends to “completely eliminate” imports of Russian energy, arguing that the Union should not repeat errors of dependence again, even in future scenarios of political easing.
The difference highlighted by Brussels is the “structural” nature of the measure: instead of a temporary sanction, the Commission wants a cut that is anchored in law and that maintains, over time, the energy independence orientation.
The calendar, for now, points to the presentation of the proposal at the beginning of 2026, after which negotiation between Member States and the European Parliament will be necessary to establish the final wording and implementation details.
The background: end of Russian gas and pressure to close the dossier
The gas agreement is one of the pillars of REPowerEU and was presented as a “gradual and permanent” decision, with concrete dates for disconnecting Russian supplies from the European market.
Alongside this, political pressure is growing to “turn off the tap” on oil too, in a context in which Brussels has reinforced action against parallel flow circuits, including recent measures aimed at transport networks associated with the so-called “shadow fleet”.
For the Commission, the logic is twofold: reduce geopolitical risk and, at the same time, prevent energy from continuing to be used as an instrument of blackmail and price instability.
Electrical networks, interconnections and the “cost of inaction”
In the same political package, Dan Jørgensen has insisted that the energy transition does not only depend on goals, but on infrastructure: without networks and interconnections, the EU risks wasting renewable electricity and maintaining higher prices due to lack of flow capacity.
The Commission even points to the “cost of inaction” and the need to meet the 15% interconnection target by 2030, defending a more European approach to planning, licensing and cost sharing in cross-border projects.
It is also in this context that Brussels proposes, in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (2028–2034), to quintuple the budget of the Connecting Europe Mechanism (MIE/CEF) for energy, from 5.84 billion to 29.91 billion euros, to accelerate works considered critical.
Renewables growing
The numbers help explain the urgency: the “State of the Energy Union” report estimates that the EU will have installed around 77 GW of new renewable capacity in 2024, on a strong growth trajectory.
For 2025, Commission projections cited by Reuters point to an additional 89 GW of renewables, which increases pressure on already congested networks and often slow licensing processes.
According to , the “end of Russian oil” that Brussels wants to legislate at the beginning of 2026 appears linked to a broader strategy: cutting external dependencies and, in parallel, building internal infrastructure that allows cheaper, safer and distributed energy between countries.
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