Monday 8 February 2016

EU imported more than half of energy use in 2014

The European Union was dependent on energy imports for more than half of its consumption in 2014.

The energy dependency of Member States stood at 53.4% during that period, according to latest figures from Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.

It was higher than in 1990 but “slightly lower” than its highest point recorded in 2008, it stated.

The figure hasn’t been constant between 1990 and 2014 however it has continuously stood above 50% since 2004.

The least dependent Member States in 2014 were Estonia (8.9%), Denmark (12.8%) and Romania (17%).

Among the five Member States consuming the largest amount of energy, those least dependent on energy imports were the UK (45.5%) and France (46.1%) in contrast to Germany (61.4%), Spain (72.9%) and Italy (75.9%).

The report stated: “It should also be noted that nine Member States recorded in 2014 their lowest energy dependency rates since 1990: Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal and Romania. In contrast, the Czech Republic is the only Member State recording a peak of its energy dependency in 2014.”