In 2021, the Union imported goods from Russia worth € 158.5 billion, or 7.9 per cent of total imports from non-EU countries. They are almost entirely of raw materials and basic artifacts, mainly hydrocarbons and coal.
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Russia has always been an important trading partner for the European Union (EU).
How much does the European Union matter from Russia?
In 2021, the EU imported 158.5 billion euros of goods from Russia (7.9 per cent of total imports from non-EU countries), placing Russia as the third largest source of imports to the Union (Tab. 1).
Since the outbreak of the global financial crisis in September 2008, imports from Russia have plummeted from 1.55 percent of GDP in 2008 to 1.08 percent in 2009, in line with the reduction in international trade that year. ; From 2006 to 2021, the trend of imports from Russia with respect to GDP was characterized by four phases (Fig. 1):
From June 2009 until the Crimean crisis in 2014, imports rose, exceeding pre-crisis levels since the early months of 2011;
With the European Union sanctions against Russia after the conflict in Crimea, imports into GDP have tended to drop, albeit with a recovery in 2017 and 2018;
In 2021 there was a rebound (after the fall in 2020, due to the lowering of international trade and the price of raw materials) connected to the global economic recovery (which caused the price of hydrocarbons to rise).
What does the European Union import from Russia?
Mainly raw materials (and especially hydrocarbons) or basic artifacts. In 2021, 67 per cent of imports from Russia (for which the product category can be identified in Eurostat statistics) was made up of raw materials (Table 2).[1] Of these, hydrocarbons accounted for 87 percent. The import of hydrocarbons and coal is critical to the Union’s internal energy needs as the latter is able to satisfy only 10% of it on its own and imports to meet the remaining consumption come largely from Russia. For example, Russia supplied 45.8 per cent for European imports of natural gas in a gaseous state in 2021, 29.8 per cent for oil and 44.8 per cent for coal (Table 2, last column). Furthermore, the EU is dependent on Russia for nearly a third of its wood and cork imports.
22.6% of what Europe imports from Russia is made up of artifacts, but these are almost entirely basic artifacts. In terms of dependence on Russia on total extra-EU imports, the dependence is particularly strong for fertilizers, followed by non-ferrous metal products and those in iron and steel.
Italy also imports mainly raw materials from Russia and especially hydrocarbons and coal (Table 3). Dependence on Russian imports rather than on other countries (Table 3 last column) is particularly strong for coal, hydrocarbons and, among manufactured products, non-ferrous metal products, iron and steel, wood and cork and paper .
