This is one of the collateral effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In order to reduce its heavy dependence on Russian gas and diversify its supplies, the European Union (EU) signed, in July 2022, a new gas agreement with Azerbaijan. The objective is for this country, on the margins of Europe and Asia, to double its gas exports to the EU by 2027. In sight, at least 20 billion cubic meters per year (compared to 8 billion in 2021). Enough to replace a small part of Russian deliveries, which previously accounted for around 45% of European imports.
This agreement is today being singled out by some Europeans after Azerbaijan’s offensive in Nagorno-Karabakh which led to the fall, on September 20, of the self-proclaimed Republic and the exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians from the enclave, which Armenia considers a “ethnic cleansing”. On Thursday October 5, the European Parliament thus adopted, by a large majority, a text calling for the “suspension” of this agreement and calling for “targeted sanctions” against the Azerbaijani state.
“Is buying gas in Baku less sinful than buying it in Moscow? », asked, as a preamble to the vote, MEP François-Xavier Bellamy, one of the leaders of the Les Républicains party and supporter of Armenia. New vice-president of the Senate in France, the communist Pierre Ouzoulias also denounces “ the game of realpolitik terrible ». “The signature affixed by Ilham Aliyev [le président azerbaïdjanais] must be morally questioned”he believes.
During the signing of the agreement, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, posed alongside the authoritarian leader, in power for twenty years, and expressed her desire to “ to strenghten [le] existing partnership » in the name of a “stable and reliable supply”. At the time, this statement had already aroused indignation in Armenia and within the diaspora. The anger is even stronger today.
Suspicions about the origin of the gas
The share of European gas supplies from Azerbaijan is still modest, but increasing. It represented around 3% of total EU gas imports in 2022, compared to 2% in 2021. The European Commission expects a share “equivalent” to this order of magnitude for the year 2023, she said on September 20.
“It is Azerbaijan that depends on the European Union, and not the other way around”, believes, for his part, Ambassador Tigran Balayan, Armenia’s representative to the EU. Gas imports from the European Union brought in 15.6 billion euros to Azerbaijan in 2022, according to data transmitted by the Eurostat office to World. This is four times more than in 2021, due in particular to the surge in gas prices but also to the increase in volumes delivered. “The European Union is the main market for Azerbaijani gas exports, ahead of Turkey and Georgia”, confirms Giovanni Sgaravatti, analyst for the Bruegel think tank, based in Belgium. Sales are mainly intended for Greece, Italy and Bulgaria. Conversely, according to the Ministry of Energy Transition, France does not import gas from Azerbaijan.
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