All natural gas imports from Russia to the EU are to cease by the start of 2027, and Russian LNG, which would be easier to route via a third country as it is usually ship-borne, must be included in this sanction.

Tali joined his Latvian, Lithuanian and Polish counterparts in issuing a joint statement.

The statement read: "By continuing to purchase LNG from Russia, the EU maintains its dependency on a country that uses energy as a hybrid weapon and a tool of manipulation; this undermines EU unity and diminishes public trust."

"These capacities must not become a backdoor for Russian gas entering Europe," the statement continued, issued by the committee chairs of all three Baltic states plus Poland.

The EU committee chairs underlined that every euro paid to Russia by way of its energy supplies helps finance its war against Ukraine and poses a direct threat to the EU.

Imports from Russia should thus be halted, with a strong political will needed to do so.

The statement's authors noted that existing LNG terminals and the terminals that will be built should fulfill their initial purpose: diversifying gas import routes and enabling the EU to stop importing gas from Russia, and not vice versa.

The signatories called on the European Commission, the European Parliament, domestic parliaments, and the governments of all EU member states, to act urgently to meet the goal set by the European Commission, and to enforce the deadline of January 1, 2027 for the cessation of imports of gas from Russia.

The communication stresses that the decision to cease energy imports from Russia must be a long-term commitment. "We must remain steadfast in strengthening our security and resilience by seeking solutions that align with EU values," it read.

The committee chairs called for continuing diplomatic efforts to strengthen relationships with reliable energy suppliers from other regions such as Central Asia, the Middle East, the U.S., and Norway in order to ensure a stable and diversified energy supply.

At the same time, the need is to avoid the EU replacing its dependency on Russian energy with reliance on yet other unstable suppliers.

Peeter Tali (Eesti 200), chair of the Riigikogu's European Union affairs committee, signed the communique on behalf of Estonia.

The committee chairs met at the beginning of this week in Vilnius, to focus on joint priorities including the protection of external borders and energy security.

While the U.S. was able to halt all imports of Russian natural gas and oil shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the EU nations are much closer and were not only more dependent on Russian supplies but thanks to the NordStream 1 pipeline and the under-construction NordStream 1 pipeline, had the means to easily import Russian gas. Ukraine and Norway, for instance, both have large gas fields, though even these are dwarfed in size by Russia's; this made LNG, which is usually transported by ship, then regassified on land, the most viable alternative. Much of the LNG to be imported comes from the U.S.

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