Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
The EU's trade with Russia was severely affected by the import and export restrictions imposed by the EU in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Exports and imports have fallen significantly below the level they were before the invasion. Seasonally adjusted values show that Russia's share in imports from outside the European Union decreased from 9.6% in February 2022 to 1.7% in June 2023, while the share of exports from outside the European Union fell from 3.8% to 1.4% in the same period. According to the publication of the European Statistical Office in Brussels, "Youstat", on Friday
In March 2022, the month after the invasion, the European Union experienced a peak trade deficit with Russia due to higher prices for energy products. The deficit amounted to 18.5 billion euros. This deficit was reduced to €0.4 billion by June 2023, remaining below €1 billion for four consecutive months in 2023 (€0.1 in March, €0.8 in April and €0.4 in May). The change was strongly affected by the €18.6 billion decrease in the monthly value of imports from Russia between March 2022 (€21.9 billion) and June 2023 (€3.3 billion). Meanwhile, the value of exports decreased from 3.4 billion euros in March 2022 to 2.9 billion euros in June 2023.

The EU-Russia energy trade deficit is declining significantly
Looking at the quarterly data, in the second quarter of 2023, the goods trade balance between the EU and Russia recorded a deficit of €1.6 billion, which indicates a significant improvement from the deficit of €45.0 billion observed in the second quarter of 2022. This large deficit can The decline is largely attributable to reduced energy imports from Russia. The energy trade deficit decreased from 40.4 billion euros in the second quarter of 2022 to 5.7 billion euros in the second quarter of 2023.
    Over the past two years, the EU's dependence on energy imports from Russia has decreased significantly. Specifically, the shares of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and petroleum oil imported from Russia have decreased significantly. Comparing the second quarter of 2021 to the second quarter of 2023, oil decreased by 27 percentage points (from 29.2% in 2021 to 2.3% in 2023), natural gas by 26 percentage points (from 38.5% to 12.9%), and coal by 45%. (from 45.0% to 0%).