Over the last two decades, gross inland energy consumption in the EU28, which stood at 1 670 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) in 1990, rose to a peak of 1 830 Mtoe in 2006 and then decreased to 1 680 Mtoe in 2012. Between 2006 and 2012, gross inland energy consumption in the EU28 has fallen by 8%.

The energy dependence rate, which shows the extent to which a country is dependent on energy imports, was 53% in the EU28 in 2012.

The domestic production of primary energy was 794 Mtoe in the EU28 in 2012. Nuclear energy (29%), accounted for the largest share, followed by renewables (22%), solid fuels (21%), gas (17%) and oil (10%).

Gross inland energy consumption fell in twenty four Member States between 2006 and 2012

The five largest energy consumers in 2012 in the EU28 were Germany (319 Mtoe, -9.2% compared with 2006),
France (258 Mtoe, -5.3%), the United Kingdom (202 Mtoe, -12.2%), Italy (163 Mtoe, -12.0%) and Spain (127 Mtoe, -11.9%). Together these five Member States accounted for 64% of total EU28 energy consumption and for 77% of the reduction in absolute terms between 2006 and 2012.

Between 2006 and 2012, energy consumption fell in twenty four Member States and increased only in Estonia (+11.6%), the Netherlands (+2.9%), Poland (+0.8%) and Sweden (+0.4%). The largest relative falls were recorded in Lithuania (-17.0%), Portugal (-15.2), Greece (-14.4%) and Hungary (-14.2%).

Denmark: the only net exporter of energy

In 2012, Denmark (-3%) was the only net exporter of energy and therefore had a negative dependence rate. The Member States the least dependent on energy imports were Estonia (17%), Romania (23%), the Czech Republic (25%), Sweden (29%), the Netherlands and Poland (both 31%). The highest energy dependence rates were registered in Malta (100%), Luxembourg and Cyprus (both 97%) and Ireland (85%). Among the five Member States consuming the largest amounts of energy, the dependence rate was highest for Italy (81%), followed by Spain (73%), Germany (61%), France (48%) and the United Kingdom (42%).

France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland and the Netherlands: the largest energy producers in the EU28

The five main energy producers in the EU28 in 2012 were France (133 Mtoe, 17% of total production in the EU28), Germany (124 Mtoe, 16%), the United Kingdom (116 Mtoe, 15%), Poland (71 Mtoe, 9%) and the Netherlands (65 Mtoe, 8%) which together accounted for 64% of total energy production in the EU28. Poland (58 Mtoe, 35% of total production in the EU28) and Germany (48 Mtoe, 29%) were the largest producers of solid fuel in the EU28, the United Kingdom (46 Mtoe, 60%) of crude oil, the Netherlands (57 Mtoe, 43%) and the United Kingdom (35 Mtoe, 26%) of gas, France (110 Mtoe, 48%) and Germany (26 Mtoe, 11%) of nuclear energy and for renewables it was Germany (33 Mtoe, 19%), France (21 Mtoe, 12%), Sweden (19 Mtoe, 10%), Italy (18 Mtoe, 10%) and Spain (14 Mtoe, 8%).