EU Facing 'Difficult' Economic Situation Amid Price Hikes and Energy Shortages, Swedish PM Says
© Fotolia / pioregur
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MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said on Friday that the European Union is in a "difficult economic situation" amid soaring inflation and limited energy stocks, with gas and electricity shortages affecting households throughout Europe.
"We are defiantly in a difficult economic situation with the inflation and with the shortages of gas and electricity, so yes, we are in a difficult situation and it is very important that we can have this discussion, this is something effecting households all across Europe the same time," Andersson said ahead of the second day of the EU summit in Brussels.
Energy sanctions, as well as supply chain disruptions due to hostilities, have caused unprecedented inflation and price hikes in many countries in Europe and beyond.
The EU member countries have sanctioned Russia after it launched its special military operation in Ukraine in February. The EU has since imposed six packages of sanctions hitting Russia's banking, finances and media, government officials and lawmakers, as well as oil, though only oil supplied by sea, not pipelines. Several European leaders have called on Brussels to include a ban on Russian gas in the future seventh package.
In this April 9, 2010 file photo, a Russian construction worker speaks on a mobile phone in Portovaya Bay some 170 km (106 miles) northwest of St. Petersburg, Russia, during a ceremony marking the start of construction for the Nord Stream pipeline.
© AP Photo / Dmitry Lovetsky
Russia's Gazprom has also significantly reduced its Nord Stream 1 gas supplies due to delays in maintenance work on turbines by German and Canadian companies, forcing EU countries to tap into the gas volumes normally reserved for winter with some countries considering returning to coal production.
According to the International Energy Agency, the EU imported 155 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia in 2021, which accounts for 45% of the bloc's imports, and 40% of its total consumption.
