ABSTRACT
The European Union is Russia’s most important partner in foreign economic activities (see Table 3.1). For both sides, the energy trade is at the core of the relationship (see Table 3.2). With the European Union’s eastward enlargement of 2004, transforming the EU-15 into the EU-25, Russian energy supplies have further gained in importance. The EU-25 now purchases two-thirds of its gas imports (equal to a quarter of domestic consumption) and a third of its oil imports (equal to 15 percent of domestic consumption) from Russia.1 Russia, on
Table 3.1 Russia’s main trading partners, 2003
Russian Share (%) Russian Share (%) exports imports ($bn) ($bn)
EU-15 47.1 35 21.9 38 Of which: Germany 10.4 8 8.1 14
Netherlands 8.8 7 1.2 2 Italy 8.5 6 2.4 4 Great Britain 4.9 4 1.4 2 Finland 4.4 3 1.8 3 France 3.5 3 2.3 4 Others 6.6 5 4.7 8
New EU members 16.2 12 4.3 7 Of which: Poland 4.6 3 1.7 3
Baltic states 4.5 3 0.7 1 Others 7.1 5 1.9 3
CIS 20.5 15 13.6 24 Rest of the world 49.9 37 17.5 30 Of which: China 8.4 6 3.3 6
Switzerland 5.8 4 0.5 1 USA 4.2 3 2.9 5 Japan 2.4 2 1.9 3 Others 29.1 22 8.9 16
Total 133.7 100 57.4 100
the other hand, exports more than a third of its oil production and more than a quarter of its gas production to EU countries. Russia’s state budget receives a third of its income from the oil and gas industry.2
