EU divided over Russian natural gas imports, Turkish economist says

Turkish economist Erdal Karagel said that Europe became divided as far as supplies of Russian natural gas was concerned.

In an article for Yeni Safak, the Turkish economist said that while Europe was currently trying to move away from energy imports from Russia, the dependence of European Union member states on Russian natural gas amounted to about 40 percent. In addition, for a number of countries Moscow remains the only and vital supplier that covers 100% of their need in natural gas. In this regard, EU states have disagreements regarding the solution of this problem, and the solution is not going to be found quickly, the specialist said.

To crown it all, EU countries have not reached a consensus regarding Russia's rubles-for-gas requirement either. In other words, Europe is split in two, the Turkish economist said.

On Wednesday, May 11, it was reported that the volume of natural gas entering Germany through the territory of Ukraine to Waidhaus sharply decreased. The transit fell by almost a quarter compared to the previous day. The lack of blue fuel had to be compensated for by increasing other supply chains, in particular from Norway and the Netherlands.

Mikhail Sheremet, State Duma deputy from Crimea accused Kiev of attempts to arrange a gas blockade of Europe. Ukraine's actions were most likely coordinated with the United States, the MP said, adding that there were no guarantees for the security of gas transit through Ukraine.

Robert Habeck, German Minister for Economic Affairs set out a hope that gas transit through Ukraine would soon be restored in full. Kiev justified its decision by the lack of security guarantees due to the situation in the Luhansk region, where it was impossible to control stations of the pipeline system, the German official said.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg, citing a report by Ember and Global think tank, said that the countries of the European Union significantly underestimated the amount of losses that they would have to incur should EU cut gas supplies from Russia. According to experts' estimates, it goes about billions of dollars in losses.

EU governments will thus to incur extra spending of 203 billion euros even in the event of a reduction in supplies from Russia by 2030, Bloomberg said.

The Financial Times said that the refusal from Russian natural gas would cost the EU 195 billion euros in the next five years.