:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/SYFMBNAXC5GVDKP6JO5Z2U3FP4.webp "Which countries in Europe depend more on the gas exported by Russia?")
This morning, the Kremlin doubled down on the growing tension with the West following the Russian invasion of Ukraine by suspending gas supplies to two member countries of the European Union (EU), Poland and Bulgaria, which refused to pay for the supply in rubles.
The ministers of both European nations considered the measure a Gazprom “blackmail”the Russian mega-company that provides the natural gas, and a “serious violation” of the agreed international contracts.
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In the case of Polandthe premier Mateusz Morawiecki indicated that his country will not suffer any consequences since today its warehouses are occupied in a 80% for gas reserves. While Bulgaria, which receives a 90% of its gas imported from Russiawill be able to cover the demand for gas from users for at least a month, according to Energy Minister Alexander Nikolov.
“There are supply alternatives available and Bulgaria hopes that alternative routes and supplies will be secured at the EU level as well,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, who described Moscow’s decision as an “instrumentalization”. of energy supplies” and said he stopped “more clear than ever that Europe needs to act quickly to reduce its dependence on Russian energy.”
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European Union officials held emergency talks in Brussels on Wednesday to seek solutions to this situation. The President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen pointed out that it was “another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail” and that any European country that agreed to pay for the supply in Russian currency would be violating commercial contracts.
In this sense, Von der Leyen assured that it is a good moment to accelerate the European transition to green energies and mark “the end of the era of Russian fossil fuels in Europe”.
In March of this year, the European Commission launched REPowerEU, its joint action plan to reduce its dependence on Russian energy and supply itself with “more affordable, secure and sustainable” energy. The block it imports 90% of its gas consumption, and Russia supplies more than 40% of the EU’s total gas consumption. The country also accounts for 27% of oil imports and 46% of coal.
Among the member countries of the EU, the most dependent on Russian gas is Hungaryaccording to the European Network of Gas Transmission Network Operators (Entsog). 25% of its energy matrix is gas that comes from Russia. At the same time, the country imports 95% of the gas it consumes from Russia, according to Eurostat data.
In this list of countries dependent on Russian gas are still Slovakia (which has an estimated dependency level of 22% of the total energy it uses), Moldova (17%), Austria (15%), Germany (14%) and Bulgaria (12%).
While, Poland is in ninth place, behind Ukrainesince both countries depend on Russian gas for 11% of their total energy consumption.
Source: Elcomercio
