The European Commission will not propose measures to limit the EU's reliance on Russian nuclear fuel this week alongside its proposals to ban Russian gas, EU energy commissioner Dan Jorgensen said on Monday. The Commission is due to propose legal measures this week to end the EU's Russian gas imports by the end of 2027 - an aim the EU executive announced last month.
The Commission had said it would also propose, in June, trade measures targeting enriched uranium, to make imports from Russia less attractive and encourage countries to switch to other suppliers.
"That will also come, but in the first stage, we'll be focusing on the gas," Jorgensen told reporters on Monday, when asked about the timing of the nuclear proposals.
He did not specify a new date for the proposals.
"The question about nuclear is, of course, complicated, because we need to be very sure that we are not putting countries in a situation where they do not have the security of supply. So we're working as fast as we can to also make that a part of the proposal," Jorgensen said.
Russia supplied 38% of the EU's enriched uranium and 23% of its raw uranium in 2023, according to the think-tank Bruegel.
The Commission has said it would also propose restricting new supply contracts for Russian uranium and enriched uranium which are co-signed by the Euratom Supply Agency.
While Brussels has fixed an end-2027 deadline by which it aims to quit Russian gas, it has not indicated a date by which the EU should quit Russian nuclear supplies, owing to the complexity of countries' reliance on Russia for fuel, spare parts, or fuel cycle services - and the risk to security of supply if these were suddenly severed.
The EU spent 23 billion euros ($26.63 billion) on Russian energy in 2024, of which around 1 billion euros was for nuclear fuel, the Commission has said.
Five EU countries - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary and Slovakia - have Russian-designed reactors set up to run on Russian fuel. While all except for Hungary have signed contracts for alternative supplies since 2022, years-long wait times mean they are not able to immediately switch.
(Reuters, June 16, 2025)
