Brussels (dpa) – For the primary time in nearly two years, European Union nations imported extra pure fuel in a single quarter from Russia than from the USA, in keeping with a brand new examine of the power market by Brussels-based suppose tank Bruegel.
The EU bought greater than 12.7 billion cubic metres of pure fuel from Russia and 12.3 billion from the US from April to June this yr, the examine reveals.
In contrast with the primary quarter of 2024, deliveries from Russia fell barely, however these from the US fell extra sharply, the analysis discovered.
Norway stays the EU’s largest fuel provider with 23.9 cubic metres within the second quarter. Russia held this place till it invaded Ukraine in February 2022, after which many EU states in the reduction of on Russian imports.
Based on the German authorities’s statistics, Germany not purchases fuel from Russia. Nevertheless, throughout the EU, Russia has risen to second place within the checklist of suppliers, simply forward of the US. The nations of vacation spot weren’t clear from the info.
In Sunday’s version of the German newspaper Welt, Norbert Röttgen, a overseas affairs knowledgeable for Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition social gathering, known as for an EU-wide import ban on Russian fuel. “The Europeans are supporting Ukraine with billions and on the similar time paying billions into Putin’s conflict chest – that’s neither accountable, rational nor credible,” Röttgen mentioned.
Michael Kruse, power coverage spokesman for Germany’s pro-business Free Democratic Social gathering (FDP), a member of the ruling coalition, argued that the EU may “pay a hard and fast quantity for help and arms deliveries to Ukraine for each cubic metre of Russian fuel imported.” Kruse advised the newspaper that “this could permit Putin to pay for the resistance towards his barbaric assaults himself.” (1 September)
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