(05 February 2016) – The European Union needed to import just over half of the energy it consumed in 2014.
Energy dependency in the EU was higher in 2014 than in 1990, but slightly lower than its highest point recorded in 2008. The evolution of EU energy dependency has not been constant between 1990 and 2014, however, it has continuously stood above 50% since 2004.
In 2014, the least dependent Member States were Estonia (8.9%), Denmark (12.8%) and Romania (17.0%), followed by Poland (28.6%), the Czech Republic (30.4%), Sweden (32.0%), the Netherlands (33.8%) and Bulgaria (34.5%).
At the opposite end of the scale, the highest energy dependence rates were registered in Malta (97.7%), Luxembourg (96.6%), Cyprus (93.4%), Ireland (85.3%), Belgium (80.1%) and Lithuania (77.9%).
Among the five Member States consuming the largest amounts of energy, the least dependent on energy imports were the United Kingdom (45.5%) and France (46.1%), in contrast to Germany (61.4%), Spain (72.9%) and Italy (75.9%).