Despite Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU imported more gas from Russia last year, according to a report cited by German media. The increase was 18 percent compared to 2023, as calculated by the group of economic experts, writes A2 CNN. This includes both gas that entered the EU through pipelines and liquefied natural gas.
Following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the EU imposed a raft of sanctions on Russian energy sources such as coal and oil. The international community aims to ban gas imports from Russia by 2027, but this plan is not legally binding, writes A2 CNN. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stopped allowing Russian natural gas to pass through and has blocked transit through pipelines across its territory.
According to the report cited by Die Welt, Italy, the Czech Republic and France in particular have been importing more and more gas from Russia. Imports will continue to grow in 2025, the expert group further emphasized. However, this is not necessary. Because demand in the EU has not increased at all. In addition, gas prices will increase by almost 60 percent in 2024, the document states.
“It is a scandal that the EU is still importing Russian gas,” says Pawel Czyzak of the German group of economists. “Instead of investing in real alternatives like renewable energy and efficiency to prevent Russian imports, member states are burning money on expensive LNG capacity that is not even being used.” Ember predicts a surplus by 2030.
Liquefied natural gas from Russia will continue to be imported into the EU. Only investments in LNG projects under construction in Russia and exports for these projects are prohibited. EU ports also cannot be used to transport Russian LNG to third countries. (A2 Televizion)
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