BRUSSELS, May 5. /TASS/. It will be difficult for importers of Russian gas in the EU to exit gas contracts using legal options such as force majeure, Reuters said citing market watchers.

The European Union will announce a roadmap to phase out the bloc's remaining gas ties with Moscow on May 6. "Lawyers and analysts said it was doubtful that force majeure would work, given the years that have passed since the EU vowed to end Russian gas imports in 2022," the agency wrote.

Agnieszka Ason, an independent energy lawyer specializing in LNG contracts and a senior research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, said that for force majeure to be declared, a supplier has to breach the contract, for example, through non-delivery. But remaining Russian supplies have been proved to be working well over three years of war. "Any deliberate action that the EU would undertake already weakens the force majeure case. It's the opposite of what force majeure as a concept is about," she said.

Legal experts said that sanctioning Russian gas imports is the most effective measure to phase out Russian gas. That would require unanimous approval from all 27 EU countries, but Slovakia and Hungary have sought to maintain close political and business ties with Russia, and the latter has vowed to block energy sanctions, Reuters said.