The European Union imported 57% of the energy it used in 2024, while 43% was produced within the bloc, a new report has found.
According to the Energy in Europe – 2026 edition report, renewables accounted for the highest share of energy production in the EU in 2024, at 48% of the total, followed by nuclear (28%), solid fuels (15%), natural gas (5%) and crude oil (3%).
However, these shares vary quite considerably from country to country, with all the energy in Malta (100%) and almost all in Latvia (99%), Portugal (98%) and Cyprus (96%) coming from renewable sources.
In France, meanwhile, nuclear accounted for the largest share (71%), with Slovakia (67%) and Belgium (56%) also reporting a strong nuclear presence. Solid fuels were the main source of energy produced in Poland (65%), Estonia (51%) and Czechia (39%), while natural gas was the number one source in Romania (36%) and the Netherlands (36%).
Imported energy
The main imported energy category in 2024 was oil and petroleum products (including crude oil), which accounted for 67% of imports, followed by natural gas (24%), solid fossil fuels (4%), electricity (3%), and renewable energy (2%).
Oil and petroleum imports came primarily from the United States (16%), Norway (12%), Kazakhstan (9%), Saudi Arabia (8%), the United Kingdom (6%) and Libya (6%), while natural gas was mainly imported from Norway (30%), the United States (17%), Algeria (14%) and Russia (14%). Coal and other solid fossil fuels were supplied by Australia, the United States, Colombia, Kazakhstan, and South Africa.
Import dependency rate
The energy import dependency rate for the EU – in other words, the extent to which an economy relies upon imports to meet its energy needs – stood at 57% in 2024, however again, some countries demonstrated a higher dependency rate than others.
In Malta, it was as high as 98%, followed by 91% in Luxembourg and 88% in Cyprus. Estonia, by contrast, had a dependency rate of just 5%.
‘Lighting, heating, moving, producing: energy is vital for our day-to-day life,’ the report noted. ‘Without energy, people and businesses cannot function. Turning on our computers or starting our cars are actions that we take for granted, yet they represent the final stage of a complex process.’ Read more here.
