The European Union's (EU) energy dependence on Russia registered a "notable decline" in coal, oil and gas in the second quarter of this year compared to 2022, leading to a reduction in the trade deficit between the two blocs.

The data cited by Lusa was released a few days ago by the EU's statistical office and reveals that the energy trade deficit between the EU bloc and Russia "was reduced from 40.4 billion euros in the second quarter of 2022 to 5.7 billion euros in the second quarter of 2023".

Thus, despite the fact that Russian energy is still being purchased, European dependence has been falling, particularly in the face of import and export restrictions imposed by the EU following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Over the last two years, the EU's dependence on energy imports from Russia has seen a notable decline," points out Eurostat, specifying that the shares of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil imported from Russia "decreased substantially" at the beginning of this year.

Specifically, comparing the second quarter of 2021 with the second quarter of 2023, the weight of Russian oil in the EU fell by 27 percentage points (from 29.2% in 2021 to 2.3% in 2023), natural gas by 26 percentage points (from 38.5% to 12.9%) and coal by 45 percentage points (from 45% to 0%).

Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the EU imposed sanctions on the Russian energy sector, notably banning the import of maritime crude oil and petroleum products, which covers 90% of the EU's previous oil imports from Russia.

The import of Russian coal in all its forms was also banned, affecting a quarter of all Russian world exports, which represents a loss of revenue of eight billion euros a year for Russia.

Overall, in the second quarter of 2023, the EU-Russia trade balance in goods recorded a deficit of 1.6 billion euros, an improvement on the figure of 45 billion euros in the same period last year.

"This substantial decrease in the deficit can largely be attributed to the decrease in energy imports from Russia," according to Eurostat.

The statistical office specifies that Russia's share of extra-EU imports fell from 9.6% in February 2022 to 1.7% in June 2023, while its share of extra-EU exports fell from 3.8% to 1.4% in the same period.

In March 2022, the month after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the EU recorded a peak trade deficit with Russia caused by high energy prices, which amounted to 18.5 billion euros.

This deficit has been reduced to 0.4 billion euros by June 2023, and will remain below 1 billion euros for four consecutive months in 2023. (Lusa)