EU Divided on Russian Gas: Bulgaria For Exit, Slovakia Not

The European Union's policy of reducing dependence on Russian energy carriers is encountering different approaches from member states, deepening internal contradictions. While Bulgaria announces its intention to prematurely terminate the import of Russian gas, Slovakia, on the contrary, is asking to be exempted from this obligation.

According to Bulgarian Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov, Sofia intends to terminate the contracts for the use and transit of Russian natural gas as early as 2026, which is significantly earlier than the general EU deadlines. "We, as part of the European Union, will join the EU's decisions," he stated. Moreover, this decision will apply to both the purchase and the transit of Russian gas through Bulgarian territory.

This decision was preceded by a call from US President Donald Trump at the UN General Assembly, where he urged Europe to stop purchasing energy from Russia. Trump insisted that countries that continue to buy oil and gas from Russia are effectively financing the Russian war machine.

Bulgaria has already taken steps in this direction, partially replacing Russian gas supplies with fuel from Azerbaijan. Nevertheless, in February 2025, the country's President Rumen Radev admitted that Bulgaria continues to indirectly receive Russian gas.

At the same time, some European Union countries are openly opposing the policy of abandoning Russian energy. After a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár announced that his country is asking the European Commission to make an exception for it within the framework of the plan to abandon Russian energy carriers in 2027-28.

Slovakia and Hungary, considered European allies of the Kremlin, continue to receive Russian gas through pipelines passing through Turkish territory and do not intend to stop imports. Moreover, they react sharply to incidents where Ukrainian forces, in response to Russian actions, target the infrastructure through which Russian gas reaches Slovakia and Hungary. Taking all this into account, Trump's plan to completely replace Russian energy in Europe with American, which he has been quite openly promoting recently, is rather vague.