European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said abandoning cheap fossil fuel supplies from Moscow was costing the European Union (EU).
Energy prices have skyrocketed across the EU due to disruptions to cheap supplies from Russia, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland on January 21.
Before 2022, the EU received 45% of its gas and 50% of its coal from Russia, while Moscow was one of the bloc’s biggest oil suppliers, Ms von der Leyen said. “This energy source may seem cheap, but it makes us dependent and vulnerable to blackmail,” she admitted.
Ms Von der Leyen went on to claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cut off our gas supplies" after the conflict in Ukraine broke out in February 2022.
“Our gas imports from Russia have dropped by about 75%. And now we import only 3% of our oil from Russia and absolutely no coal from Russia,” she said.
The European Commission President went on to acknowledge that the loss of Russian supplies had exacerbated the energy crisis. “Freedom has come at a price. Households and businesses are facing sky-high energy bills, and in many places these costs have not come down.”
The EU has imposed comprehensive sanctions on Russia, targeting its industrial sector, as well as its energy and financial sectors. In 2022, Russia stopped supplying gas to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, citing maintenance and the sanctions’ impact on Western-made equipment.
In September 2022, two pipelines, Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2, running under the Baltic Sea, were sabotaged, completely disrupting Russian gas supplies to the EU. Russia accused the US and UK of being behind the incident, but both countries denied responsibility.
In her speech in Davos, von der Leyen said the EU could replace Russian gas supplies with renewables and nuclear power. “We will have to invest in next-generation clean energy technologies, such as fusion, enhanced geothermal and solid-state batteries,” the head of the European Commission said.
However, some EU member states such as Hungary and Slovakia have increasingly called on Brussels to review its sanctions policy and seek a diplomatic solution to the conflict in Ukraine.
On January 1, 2025, Ukraine stopped shipping Russian gas to EU countries via Soviet-era pipelines after Kiev decided not to renew its agreement with Russian gas giant Gazprom. This prompted Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico to threaten to cut humanitarian aid and electricity supplies to Ukraine if Kiev did not resume gas transit.
