The European Commission postponed the publication date of the plan to ban oil imports from Russia.

The plan to discuss the ban on the import of Russian oil was excluded from the agenda of the meeting of the European Commission (EC), scheduled for April 15. This was announced on March 24 by Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, answering a question from journalists during a briefing in Brussels.

"As practice shows, including the list of pre-published documents, we publish them often, so, firstly, I cannot give a new date. I can assure you that we remain committed to this proposal. The head of [EC Ursula] von der Leyen made it very clear that returning to importing Russian energy would be a repeat of the mistake of the past, it would be a strategic mistake," Itkonen said, a video of her response was posted on the website of the EC audiovisual service.

She added that although the EC does not yet have a transparent date for the publication of the new plan, the commission will still strive to completely abandon Russian oil as soon as possible. Itkonen promised to keep journalists informed.

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Bloomberg reported on March 20 that the European Union may postpone the decision to abandon Russian oil amid supply problems from the Middle East due to Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz. According to experts, a long-term failure of energy supplies will lead to an increase in inflation in the eurozone to 6.3%

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stressed on March 20 that the EU, by rejecting Russian gas, "continues to shoot its voters in the foot." He noted that if alternative markets, which are now in dire need of petroleum products, are "more attractive," Russia will focus on them first.

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