On the occasion of the 24th European Union - Russia summit, which will take place on 18 November in Stockholm, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, issues data on trade in goods between Russia and the EU. Data on trade in services and investments can be found in the recent News Release1 published for the previous EU - Russia summit.
Germany, the Netherlands and Italy: largest trading partners of Russia
Among the EU27 Member States, Germany (9.6 bn euro or 31% of EU exports) was by far the largest exporter to Russia in the first half of 2009, followed by Italy (3.1 bn or 10%), France (2.3 bn or 8%), the Netherlands (2.1 bn or 7%) and Finland (2.0 bn or 6%). Germany (10.4 bn or 20%) was also the largest importer, followed by the Netherlands (6.2 bn or 12%), Italy (5.9 bn or 11%), Poland (4.2 bn or 8%) and France (4.0 bn or 8%).
Most Member States recorded deficits in trade with Russia in the first half of 2009, the largest being observed in the Netherlands (-4.1 bn euro), Italy (-2.8 bn), Poland (-2.6 bn) and France (-1.6 bn). The highest surplus was recorded in Austria (+0.3 bn).
More than 40% of EU27 exports to Russia in the first half of 2009 were machinery and vehicles and another quarter were other manufactured goods, while energy accounted for nearly three quarters of imports. At the detailed level, the main EU27 exports to Russia included medicine, motor cars and parts, aircraft and mobile phones, while the main imports included oil, gas and coal.