Written question – Circumvention of EU sanctions through imports of petrochemical products derived from Russian crude oil – E-004152/2025

Question for written answer  E-004152/2025
to the Commission
Rule 144
Daniel Obajtek (ECR)

Despite the EU’s restrictive measures on Russian crude oil and petroleum products, the petrochemical products obtained in non-EU countries from Russian crude oil continue to enter the EU market.

Such practices risk undermining the effectiveness of EU sanctions and create unfair competition for European refineries and the European chemical industry that fully comply with the EU sanctions regime. They also threaten to prolong the EU’s dependency on Russian fossil fuels, contradicting the objectives of the REPowerEU plan.

In this context, can the Commission clarify:

• 1.Whether it is monitoring the scale and routes of imports of petrochemical products obtained from Russian crude oil through non-EU countries?
• 2.What assessment it has made of the impact of such imports on the internal oil and petrochemical market and the effectiveness of EU sanctions?
• 3.Whether it intends to present concrete proposals to address this loophole, including, where appropriate, extending the scope of current sanctions or relevant legislation (eg. proposal for a regulation on the phasing out of Russian gas imports and improving the monitoring of potential energy dependencies) to cover the relevant petrochemical products?

Submitted: 22.10.2025