Gas Security of Supply in the European Union

The EU remains widely dependent on external gas supplies, with imports representing 70% of its consumption in 2013. Member States have different import profiles with divergent levels of dependency on Russian imports. Several European Member States rely heavily on Russian supplies, which shows that the EU gas supply security needs to be examined both from an internal and international perspective. Since the 2009 crisis between Russia and Ukraine, the EU has adopted several legislative tools to strengthen EU gas security of supply. The third legislative package, the security of supply Regulation (EU) 994/2010 and the Energy Infrastructure package identifying Projects of Common Interest have significantly improved the ability of the EU to face import disruptions. However, several countries remain particularly vulnerable to the occurrence of disruption. When considering national production, storage, and the diversity of suppliers, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, and Lithuania seem to be at risk. Romania, Poland, and Hungary also import the bulk of their gas from Russia, but have either domestic production or significant storage capacity.