The European Commission has reported a limited impact of the war in the Middle East on the energy markets of the European Union, despite the significant dependence of European countries on imported energy resources.
This is reported by Finway
Diversification of Supplies and EU Energy Resilience
European Commission spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen emphasized during a briefing that the EU has well-diversified sources of gas supply, allowing it to avoid dependence on a single supplier. Currently, gas is supplied to Europe both through pipelines and in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from various global partners. A similar situation is observed regarding oil supplies. Itkonen highlighted that the EU does not import oil or gas from Iran, with Norway (via pipelines) and the United States (via LNG terminals) remaining the main gas suppliers.
“We have well-diversified gas supplies. We have moved away from dependence on a single supplier to a combination of pipeline and liquefied gas from global suppliers. The same applies to oil… And we do not import oil or gas from Iran. Our largest gas suppliers are Norway through pipelines and the United States through LNG terminals,” Itkonen stated.
Reserves, Prices, and Individual Countries’ Positions
According to the spokesperson, the lowest electricity prices are currently observed in EU countries with the highest share of renewable energy, primarily in Finland, Sweden, and Spain. At the same time, Itkonen assured that there is no immediate threat of oil supply shortages for Europe. Each member state is required by regulation to maintain emergency oil reserves for 90 days and to inform the European Commission in case of their use; however, none of the countries have done so so far.
The European Commission is also closely monitoring any increases in energy resource prices and has tools at its disposal to respond to crisis situations. However, according to Itkonen, there is currently no need to implement these measures.
Meanwhile, Hungary called on the EU on March 9 to immediately lift restrictions on the import of Russian oil and gas, citing the threat of supply reductions due to the escalation of the situation in the Middle East. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who recently visited Moscow and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated that maintaining sanctions could cause significant harm to both European citizens and the EU economy.