February 23 (SeeNews) - All five EU member states from Southeast Europe (SEE) reduced their consumption of natural gas between August 2022 and January 2023 compared to the same months between 2017 and 2022, with Slovenia achieving the lowest rate of decline, of 14.2%, Eurostat said.
Slovenia and Spain, with a decline in consumption of 13.7%, were the only two countries that fell short of the EU-wide target of 15%, the European statistical office said in a data release earlier this week.
By contrast, Romania posted the highest reduction in natural gas use in SEE in the review months, by more than a quarter. Greece, Bulgaria and Croatia slashed their use by over 20% each.
In the 27-member bloc, consumption of natural gas dropped 19.3% in August 2022-January 2023 compared to the average value from the same reference period in the five years preceding. In Finland gas consumption fell the most, by over 57%, while Ireland was at the other end, with a decline of just 0.3%, Eurostat data showed.
In August 2022, the EU Council passed a regulation setting a reduction target for natural gas consumption of 15% for the August 2022-March 2023, as part of its REPowerEU plan to eliminate dependence on Russian fossil fuels.