GENEVA

The European Commission's official representative in Vienna has criticized ongoing Austrian gas imports from Russia, the local Kleine Zeitung daily reported on Thursday.  

"Oh my God, 55% of Austria's gas continues to come from Russia," Martin Selmayr said at the art fair viennacontemporary discussion event. 

Austria finances with the gas imports "Putin's war and nobody is on the Vienna Ringstrasse to protest against it," Selmayr said, referring to the iconic road where Austria's parliament is situated. 

"This amazes me, because blood money is sent to Russia every day with the gas bill," the German politician added. 

Selmayr went on to say that while he understood the energy problems Austria was facing, Austria was a rich country and, like other countries, could get by without Russian gas. 

The EU report of May 2023 attested to Austria's shortcomings in decoupling from Russian gas. While the share of gas imports from Russia has dropped from 80% to 57%, according to the report, Austria "does not have a clearly defined short-term plan to completely decouple from Russia." 

Austrian Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler had presented a plan to phase out Russian gas in late April. The minister wants to make energy suppliers more responsible for storing non-Russian gas and transfer parts of the gas business of the private company OMV to the state-holding company OBAG. 

Furthermore, according to the minister's plan, Austria is to secure gas volumes from OMV in Norway and Romania, including transport capacities.