The Baltic states are urging the European Union to move faster on banning Russian oil imports, even as phaseout negotiations have stalled in the wake of the Strait of Hormuz closure, which has raised fresh concerns about energy supply security across the bloc. The disruption has complicated an already politically fraught exit from Russian energy, giving European policymakers a ready-made reason to slow their pace — one that Baltic governments appear unwilling to accept.
Why the Talks Have Stalled
The immediate cause of the impasse is the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. That chokepoint is critical to global oil flows, and its closure triggered concern among EU member states about whether the bloc could absorb the loss of Russian supply without aggravating an already tightened market. For governments weighing energy costs against geopolitical commitments, the Hormuz disruption provided both a genuine operational concern and a politically convenient delay.
The Baltic Position: Security Over Supply Anxiety
The Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — are pushing back against that logic. Their argument, as reflected in their public pressure on the EU, is that the phaseout should accelerate rather than stall. The Baltics have historically been among the most hawkish EU members on Russian energy dependence, a posture rooted in geographic proximity and political experience with Moscow. Their call to Brussels is to treat the current moment as an argument for urgency, not caution.
What This Means for EU Energy Policy
The standoff illustrates a tension that has run through European energy policy since Russia's invasion of Ukraine: the gap between members that view Russian energy as an existential security risk and those that weigh it primarily through a supply and cost lens. A Hormuz-driven supply shock pulls some member states toward the second camp, at least temporarily. The Baltic states are pressing to hold the line on the first. Until the Strait of Hormuz situation resolves, that disagreement is unlikely to produce a revised phaseout timetable — which is precisely what the Baltic governments are pushing Brussels to deliver.