The European Union Tuesday stressed that the 27-member bloc has put sanctions on oil supply from Russia but not on gas.
“We have not imposed sanctions on import of Russian gas at all. Russia has cut off gas supplies to Europe, “chief European Commission spokesperson, Eric Mamer, told a news conference in Brussels.
He said even before Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, “Russia has proven to be a non-reliable supplier in terms of gas. The action to reduce supplies to Europe has been taken by Russia.” The European Union has never come forward with a proposal for sanctions against gas, underlined Mamer in reply to a question by a journalist on the subject.
“When it comes to sanctions you need to analyze whether the sanctions are going to hurt Russia more than they hurt the EU. That is a key factor in determining the type of sanctions that we decided to propose and the EU has adopted,” clarified the EU spokesperson.
He noted that the EU has adopted numerous packages of sanctions including on a vast amount of fossil fuel supplies from Russia, in particular oil and coal.
Europe has been working very hard to diversify away from Russian gas and compensate the disruptions in supply from Russia through other suppliers and means, he added.
Meanwhile, according to recent figures released by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas to the EU with a share of 31.3 pct in the first quarter of 2022.
After Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, the supply of natural gas from Russia steadily decreased. Compared with the first quarter of 2022, Russia’s share dropped by 15.5 percentage points and stood at 15.8 pct in the fourth quarter of 2022, it noted.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said early this month “Russia cut gas exports to Europe by 80 pct within eight months. “
Source: Kuwait News Agency