In 2014 Croatia met 43.8 per cent of its energy needs with imports, the least since 1997 when the share of imports in energy consumption was 42.2 per cent. Croatia recorded the lowest energy dependency rate in 1991 - 27.3 per cent, while the highest rate, of 54.6 per cent, was recorded in 2008. The share of imports in energy consumption in 2013 was 47 per cent.
In terms of dependency on energy imports in 2014, Croatia was alongside Slovenia and the United Kingdom, which recorded rates of 44.6 and 45.5 per cent respectively.
The highest energy dependency rates were recorded in Malta (97.7%), Luxembourg (96.6%), Cyprus (93.4%), Ireland (85.3%), Belgium (80.1%) and Lithuania (77.9%), while the least dependent countries were Estonia (8.9%), Denmark (12.8%) and Romania (17.0%), followed by Poland (28.6%), the Czech Republic (30.4%), Sweden (32.0%), the Netherlands (33.8%) and Bulgaria (34.5%).
Among the five member states consuming the largest amounts of energy, the least dependent on energy imports were the United Kingdom (45.5%) and France (46.1%), in contrast to Germany (61.4%), Spain (72.9%) and Italy (75.9%).
"The energy dependency of the European Union (EU) stood in 2014 at 53.4%, meaning that the EU needed to import just over half of the energy it consumed in 2014," Eurostat said. The EU's energy dependency rate increased slightly from 2013 when it was 53.1 per cent.