Europe

8324 readers

1 users here now

News/Interesting Stories/Beautiful Pictures from Europe 🇪🇺

(Current banner: Thunder mountain, Germany, 🇩🇪 ) Feel free to post submissions for banner pictures

Rules

(This list is obviously incomplete, but it will get expanded when necessary)

Be nice to each other (e.g. No direct insults against each other);
No racism, antisemitism, dehumanisation of minorities or glorification of National Socialism allowed;
No posts linking to mis-information funded by foreign states or billionaires.

Also check out [email protected]

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

213

"Blood money is sent to Russia [from Austria] every day with the gas bill:" EU ambassador summoned for criticising Austria’s Russian gas dependence (www.euractiv.com)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"Oh my God, 55% of Austria’s gas continues to come from Russia,” Martin Selmayr lamented in Vienna. Paying for continued Russian supplies was tantamount to helping finance its war against Ukraine, and no one protested, he added.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 24 points 11 months ago

It's embarrassing how many austrian politicians are defending the russian gas imports.

Sadly true.

Why One Country Is Struggling to Break Away From Russian Gas (July 2023)

Germany, which got 55 percent of its supply from Russia before the war, now imports zero. Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic have halted or are close to halting flows. And Italy has been steadily trimming imports, and pledges to be free of Russian natural gas by the end of this year.

By contrast, Austria, which received nearly 80 percent of its gas from Russia before the invasion, still got more than half its total from Russia in May. And in March, when demand was higher, the figure reached 74 percent. As long as Russia is selling gas, Austria will buy it, the chief executive of the Austrian energy company OMV Group said this month.

The government’s difficulties in weaning itself off Russian gas, which it has pledged to do, have drawn complaints from critics who say Austria’s gas payments are helping to finance Moscow’s war machine.