EU proposes one year delay to methane import rules

The European Commission proposed a one year delay on Wednesday to the EU methane emissions rules for oil and gas imports that were due to take effect on January 1, 2027, under which importers would have until May 31, 2029 to prove their 2028 imports met monitoring and reporting rules equivalent to the EU's.

Why it matters: Brussels is choosing supply security over the timetable of its first in the world methane import law in a winter of high energy prices: France and the United States pressed for the delay, the US is Europe's biggest liquefied natural gas supplier, and some member states are already pushing to stretch one year into three.

Data as of European Commission press release IP/26/2119, read in full in a live browser session, and the Reuters report opened and read in full via a republication. Correction, Wednesday, October 14, 2026: an earlier version of this story, built on a faulty research summary, said the Commission proposed a single compliance date of January 1, 2031, penalties from 2032 and savings close to 1 billion euros across about 130 importers. Those figures were wrong and have been removed; the proposal is a one year postponement of the import related provisions, and the headline, lede and body have been corrected. Developing item, 2 to 3 sentences by design.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday a one year delay to the EU’s methane emissions rules for imported oil and gas, which were due to take effect on January 1, 2027 and would have required foreign suppliers to monitor and report methane emissions. Under the proposed changes, importers would have until May 31, 2029 to prove that their oil, gas and coal imports during 2028 complied with methane monitoring and reporting rules equivalent to those of the EU, and the Commission said the postponement of the import related provisions is designed to avoid additional pressures on the security of supply of imported fossil fuels in the current geopolitical context. The move followed pressure from France, whose president wrote to the Commission president last month requesting a delay and warning of legal risks for importers, and from the United States, Europe’s biggest liquefied natural gas supplier, which warned in June that the law could disrupt fuel deliveries; EU countries and the European Parliament must still negotiate and approve the delay, and Czechia and Italy are among those that have demanded a longer, three year postponement.

EU proposes one year delay to methane import rules

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