On April 7, the European Parliament approved a motion calling on the European Commission to block all supplies to Europe of gas, oil and coal.
It has been 8 years since, in June 2014 immediately after the occupation of Crimea, the European Union promoted the “Energy Union” with the aim of achieving “sustainable” energy security in Europe.
On that occasion, the European Commissioner for Energy and Climate, Miguel Arias Canete,he underlined the close connection between the growth of renewable sources, the integration of European electricity grids into a single market, and the diversification of supply sources for natural gas considered a “transition” fuel towards the decarbonisation of the economy. Then, as today, the goal was to make Europe independent from the supply of Russian gas (150 billion cubic meters).
In 2014 the completion of the South Stream, intended to bring gas from Russia to Europe through a gas pipeline under the Black Sea, was blocked, while the new infrastructures in southern Europe to “bypass” Russia were considered strategic and priority:
– The Trans-Adriatic-Pipeline (Tap) to transport gas from Azerbaijan to Italy through Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Albania. After 7 years, in 2021, the TAP became operational with the transfer of 8 billion cubic meters in the European network (7 to Italy), with a long delay and a reduced amount of gas transported compared to forecasts: Italy contributed significantly to the delays with “environmentalist” opposition of various types and with the basic prejudice against the need to supply our country with additional quantities of natural gas. The same prejudice that has prevented the extraction of gas from our seas for over 20 years;
– EastMed ,to connect the natural gas from the offshore fields of Israel and Cyprus, and in the future of Egypt, to the European network, through the connection Cyprus-Greece and Italy with the new Poseidon gas pipeline. The project is funded by the European Connecting Europe Facility program and the European Investment Bank. East Med was supposed to supply the European network initially with 10 billion cubic meters, with an extension of up to 20 billion in the following years. East Med was blocked by the Italian government (Conte 1) in 2018, pandering to the opposition of Turkey, and despite the fact that in April 2017 Minister Calendahad signed up to join the project together with Cyprus, Greece and Israel, and the European Commission. Italy has only recently re-entered the project, and in any case the implementation times are obviously longer than forecasts.
Despite the blockade of South Stream, also thanks to the delays in the diversification of supplies, the European Union had to recognize the persistence of the “key” role of Russia (Miguel Arias Canete, 4th EU Energy Summit – 12 April 2018). And so as TAP slowed and EastMed blocked, Russia continued to be Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas.
The major users of natural gas are Germany (91 billion cubic meters) and Italy (71 billion).
Natural gas is the “transition” fuel chosen by Italy since the 1990s to replace coal and oil both in the generation of electricity and in the distribution of heat for industrial and domestic uses. The use of gas in Germany has grown in particular in the last decade, not only to replace coal but also to replace “outgoing” nuclear power.
Italy imported over 30 billion cubic meters from Russia in 2021, and Germany over 50 billion.
It should be noted that Italy and Germany marginally use “indigenous” natural gas reserves (less than 5% of total consumption).
The third European country for gas consumption is Holland (44 billion cubic meters), which produces about 50% of its needs from the Groningen site and imports about 8 billion from Russia. Behind Holland, France with 40 billion, 10 of which imported from Russia. Poland, with a consumption of 22 billion, also imports about 10 billion.
The other major European consumer, Spain (32 billion) has marginal imports from Russia.
These data show that Germany and Italy use more than half of all natural gas imported into Europe from Russia.
And therefore European independence from Russian gas depends mainly on Germany and Italy.
