EU has reduced share of Russian gas imports to 7.5%: EU Commission chief

BRUSSELS

The European Union has reduced Russia’s share in its gas imports to 7.5%, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday.

Von der Leyen spoke at a joint news conference with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas in the country’s capital Tallinn.

Since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war on Feb. 24, the EU has significantly reduced its energy dependency on Russia and made “enormous efforts” to successfully divert away from “Russian fossil fuels towards reliable suppliers and invest in renewable energies," she asserted.

The “biggest factor” of the energy dependency was natural gas imports that made up 40% of the bloc’s total supply in February, von der Leyen added.

“Now we are down to 7.5% within seven months,” she said, adding that by now, the EU has also totally eliminated Russian coal imports.

Von der Leyen also vowed to “wind down Russian oil to 10% of what we initially had” until the end of 2022.

She promised that the EU executive body will present its detailed proposals to reduce “skyrocketing” electricity prices.

Beyond immediate intervention into the electricity and energy market, the EU has to “accelerate the clean transition in renewable energy” to completely “get rid of” all forms of all Russian energy dependency, she stressed.

Last week, von der Leyen outlined a so-called roadmap to limit rising energy bills by capping the market price of imported natural gas and reforming the European electricity market.

At their informal summit in the Czech capital Prague on Friday, EU leaders discussed these plans, including options on capping the price of natural gas imported from partners that the EU considers “reliable,” as well as from Russia.

As part of an overall reform of the EU market, they also talked about possibilities to curb or decouple the price of gas used to generate electricity.

This came after the demand of 15 EU countries, including Spain, France, and Italy.