The European Union continues to depend to a large extent on fossil fuels for its energy supply, their share in the gross energy available in the EU bloc standing at 70% in 2021, a level similar to that of 2020, according to the data published on Monday by the European Office of Statistics (Eurostat).

This percentage has decreased significantly in the last decades, due to the increase in the share of energy from renewable sources. Since 1990, the first year for which data are available, the share of fossil fuels used in the European Union has decreased by 13 percentage points (pp), according to Agerpres.

In 2021, Malta (96%) remained the EU Member State with the highest share of fossil fuels in available gross energy, followed by the Netherlands and Cyprus (both 89%), Ireland and Poland (both 88%). Most EU member states had a share between 50% and 85% (including Romania, 72.4%), only Sweden (32%), Finland (38%) and France (48%) had below 50%.

In 2021, compared to 2020, in only five EU member states – Finland (minus 3 pp), Belgium (minus 3 pp), Lithuania (minus 3 pp), Portugal (minus 2 pp) and Denmark (minus 2 pp) decreased slightly the share of fossil fuels in the available gross energy, while the most significant advance was in Bulgaria (4 pp), Estonia (3 pp), Poland and Slovakia (both with 2 pp) and Spain (1 pp).