Source: European Parliament
Following the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, the EU has acted firmly to cut its reliance on Russian energy. REPowerEU[1] aims to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports, accelerate the clean transition, diversify supplies and enhance EU energy resilience.
To put pressure on Russia to cease its war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU has adopted 17 packages of massive and unprecedented restrictive measures[2], including sanctions to ban coal and oil imports from Russia and to target the ‘shadow’ fleet[3].
Sanctions and diversification away from an unreliable supplier have reduced the share of oil imports from Russia from almost a third to 3% of total EU imports .
Losing this lucrative market has a significant effect on Russia’s economy, whose budget relies largely on oil revenues. Price caps, agreed with the international G7+ Price Cap Coalition, have further reduced Russia’s oil revenues and helped to stabilise global energy markets.
There are no sanctions on the import of Russian natural gas. Sanctions therefore play no role in the increase in gas prices in 2022. This was largely due to Russia weaponising gas supplies and inflating prices with its reduced supply.
The EU cut its Russian gas imports from over 45% in 2021 to 19% in 2024, replacing it with alternatives like liquefied natural gas from other sources.
Moving to reliable suppliers has made the EU more resilient to price shocks. This will further be taken into account in the revision of the Security of Supply Framework due in 2026.
Sanctions have an impact on the Russian economy, which is shrinking, facing serious inflationary pressures and challenges with cross-border payments as well as inability to attract funds in the international markets and distortions in various economic sectors.
- [1] https://commission.europa.eu/publications/key-documents-repowereu_en.
- [2] https://finance.ec.europa.eu/eu-and-world/sanctions-restrictive-measures/sanctions-adopted-following-russias-military-aggression-against-ukraine_en.
- [3] The ‘shadow’ fleet is composed of vessels practicing irregular and high-risk shipping practices as set out in the International Maritime Organisation General Assembly resolution A.1192(33).