Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 7 on affordable and clean energy; which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal'. 

SDG 7 calls for ensuring universal access to modern energy services, improving energy efficiency and increasing the share of renewable energy. To accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy system, countries need to facilitate access to clean energy research, promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology. Energy dependence on imports of energy carriers exposes the European economy to volatile world market prices and the risk of supply shortages, for example, due to geopolitical conflicts. The risks increase with dependency on single countries e.g. determined by the supply infrastructure.

There are several relevant EU policies for this indicator. The Energy Security Strategy outlines the need to enhance domestic energy production, including the need to increase local renewable energy production, energy efficiency and provide missing infrastructure. Moreover, EU cohesion policy funds (2021–2027) including the ‘Next Generation EU’ recovery plan provide funding for investments in renewable energies. REPowerEU is a new strategic plan on reducing the EU’s dependence on energy imports, particularly from Russia, due to insecurity and high prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, the revised Energy efficiency and Renewable energy Directives set ambitious EU targets to be reached by 2030.

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The indicator shows the share of total energy needs of a country met by imports from other countries. It is calculated as net imports divided by the gross available energy. Energy dependence = (imports – exports) / gross available energy.

% of imports in total energy consumption
i. all products
ii. solid fuels
iii. total petroleum products
iv. gas

Calendar year.

Indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source dataset (see nrg_ind_id).

ESS

Data source: European Statistical System (ESS)

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data reported by the countries.

Every year

Indicator is updated annually. Complete and updated ESS data release information can be accessed via Eurostat release calendar.

T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States; plus Iceland, Norway, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo^(*).

_{(*)   This designation is without prejudice to positions on status and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.}

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

> 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregates) starts in 2000.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is longer than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

See tables  sdg_07_50

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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