There are many reasons – gas consumption in the EU fell by 6% in the first half of the year

The countries of the European Union are on the back burner. Finland reduced its gas consumption by as much as 45.4 percent in the first half of the year, saving relatively more gas than any other EU member. Austria’s neighboring countries, Germany and the Czech Republic, reduced their consumption by 7.5 and 6.3 percent respectively.

Austria, on the other hand, was only in the lower midfield with a gas saving of more than five percent and was therefore below the EU average. Portugal reduced its gas consumption by 4.1 percent. Hungary and Italy found it much more difficult to reduce their consumption with savings of only 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.

Spain, among others, recorded a higher gas consumption than in previous years: here consumption increased by 6.8 percent. Greece needed even more extra gas, with an increase of 11.7 percent. The evaluation is based on data from Eurostat and calculations from Agenda Austria.

“Major differences in the EU”
There are many reasons for the reduced consumption. Due to the warm spring, the heating season ended earlier than usual in many places. In many EU countries, however, industry in particular would need significantly less gas than in previous years. In Scandinavia, gas plays virtually no role in energy generation and hardly any heating is done with gas. “The differences in the EU are still large in that regard,” says economist Jan Kluge.

The EU countries want to use at least 15 percent less fossil gas between August and March next year than the average of the past five winters. EU energy ministers agreed on this in July. This saving target is not yet binding. Only in the event that EU countries issue a “Union Alert” about gas shortages, the target becomes mandatory.