ECB: EU cannot replace energy imports from Russia overnight

“Many European governments are working hard to reduce their dependence on Russian energy, but this is time-consuming. Twenty-two percent of eurozone energy imports come from Russia. These imports can not be replaced overnight,” President of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde said, Report informs via Phileleftheros.

“The eurozone is also heavily dependent on other Russian raw materials, such as nickel, cobalt and vanadium,” Lagarde added.

She stressed that economic dependence on hostile countries is indeed a vulnerability.

According to the ECB president, rising energy prices are mainly the result of geopolitical tensions and it is not easy to predict their impact.

“We try to take into account the high uncertainty that results from the current situation, and for this reason, in our most recent evaluations, we have included the most pessimistic scenarios. Another factor that affected energy prices was the unusual weather, which was also unpredictable,” she said.