The EU's increasing dependency on energy imports
According to the latest Eurostat figures,close to 54% of the EU-27's gross inland energy consumption comes from imported sources. The energy dependency rate shows the proportion of energy that an economy must import. This rate is for ex. 48.86% for France,61.08% for Germany, 81.29% for Italy and 97.37% for Luxembourg. Moreover the security of EU's energy supplies if imports are cocentrated among a few partners may be threatened. And this is the case if we consider that nearly three quarters of the EU imports of natural gas come from only three countries namely Russia,Norway and Algeria. And in this regard Russia and Algeria for obvious political grounds could cause problems. We must stress that EU dependency on energy imports increased from less than 40% of gross energy consumption in the 1980's to 54% by the 2010's. One of EU's priority over the next decade will be to secure suppliers. Another clear challenge will be to keep a balanced approach to a highly controversial subject which is about the environmental impact of shale gas extraction activities. Now shale gas but also shale oil could play a key role in Europe's fight for more energy independence.
Comments :
- No comments
Post a comment