While most EU countries have radically reduced their imports, Austria is once again increasingly relying on Gazprom. The representative of the EU Commission, Martin Selmayr, warns against co-financing the war.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently announced that the EU was able to reduce its dependence on Russian gas from 56.9 percent (2019) to just under eight percent at the end of last year. This means that the EU countries are already very close to the common goal of phasing out Russian energy sources. But not all member states use the alternatives co-organized by Brussels.
Hungary has maintained its high dependency on Russian gas and only temporarily reduced Austria. According to the Ministry of Energy, before the start of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine – in January 2022 – 81 percent of gas supplies came from Russia. After a significant reduction to 21 percent in September of the previous year, which was also related to restricted deliveries by the Russian gas company Gazprom, the share rose again to 71 percent at the end of the year.