Overview
- The European Commission plan, pulled from Tuesday's updated agenda, no longer targets an April 15 unveiling.
- The draft would write into EU law a complete phase-out of Russian oil by end-2027 and keep the ban even if later sanctions ease.
- An EU official linked the delay to current geopolitical developments as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran drives what the IEA calls an unprecedented oil supply shock.
- Internal rifts persist, with Hungary and Slovakia—dependent on the Druzhba pipeline disrupted on January 27—clashing with Kyiv and complicating unity on energy measures.
- Any near-term supply effect would be small because Russian oil had fallen to about 1% of EU imports by late 2025 after earlier seaborne bans.