Estonia’s President Kersti Kaljulaid said on May 8 her country does not intend to buy electricity directly from Russia. In an interview with LETA/BNS, Kaljulaid also added that his country will seek consensus among European Union Member States for a pollution tax on Russian electricity entering the bloc.
“What concerns energy, Estonia is not buying electricity from Russia through any of our nine connections to Russia,” the Estonian president was quoted as saying. “Estonia is buying electricity from Nord Pool. And we know that there is indeed Russian electricity on Nord Pool, too, and most of it comes to the Nord Pool market through Finland, some of it through Lithuania itself,” she added.
According to the president, Estonia supports the European Commission’s initiatives to tax electricity imports from third countries in a bid to protect the single market from dumping, BNS reported.
Earlier in the year, EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson from Estonia said that a solution was needed to alleviate the recent emergence of cheaper Russian and Belarusian electricity imports on the Estonian market. Cheaper Russian and Belarusian electricity – which is not subject to EU emissions taxes – being dumped on the market is an example of recent competition, though the practice could be stopped, Simson argued, adding that about 75% of Russia’s energy production is nuclear, and 25% comes from coal-fired power stations, which are not subject to emissions tax.
