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Germany, Czech Republic look for EU talks on totally stopping Russian energy

Germany and the Czech Republic are pressing the European Union to hold talks on how to get rid of the staying energy sources Europe imports from Russia, EU diplomats told on Tuesday.

Germany, Europe's greatest economy and gas market, and the Czech Republic will ask Brussels to begin regular high-level talks - possibly among countries' energy ministers - on how to totally end their imports of Russian energy.

Moscow has actually slashed gas exports to Europe since attacking Ukraine in 2022, and an undersea surge closed down the Nord Stream pipeline from former top gas provider Russia to Germany.

The EU has quickly replaced Russian fuel with eco-friendly energy and more gas from other providers. But the bloc still got 15% of its gas from Russia last year.

Russia sent more than 15.6 million metric tons of Russian liquefied natural gas to EU ports in 2015, according to data analytics firm Kpler, a 37.7% dive compared to 2021, the year before Russia's Ukraine intrusion.

Berlin and Prague will make the call during a conference of EU countries energy ministers in Brussels on Thursday, EU diplomats informed .

A file, previously reported , revealed the ministers are set to discuss on Thursday the obstacles they are facing in phasing out Russian energy imports. EU members including Austria and Hungary stay heavily dependent on Russian gas.

Berlin and Prague's relocation is one of many methods which the EU has attempted to work around insufficient support among its member countries to totally sanction Russian gas imports - which Hungary has actually consistently said it would obstruct.

The EU has already banned imports of Russian coal, as well as sea-borne petroleum, with exemptions for some land-locked countries.

Independently, EU countries are going over sanctions on trans-shipments of Russian LNG in Europe, but have not considered outright prohibiting imports.

The bloc has also authorized a legal option for EU nations to obstruct Russian companies from utilizing their gas import facilities. Nevertheless, Spain and others have raised issues that if they did this alone, Russian LNG would merely stream to other EU ports instead.

Brussels has actually set out a goal to end the EU's dependence on Russian energy by 2027.