REUTERS
For the EU, bilateral issues between Russia and Ukraine threaten its largest external energy source—some 30% of the bloc’s gas imports transit through Ukraine.
Representatives of the Russian Gazprom did not show up at the expert-level tripartite negotiations on the EU-Ukraine-Russia gas transit, which took place in Brussels September 12-13, according to Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev.
"Yesterday [September 12], tripartite consultations took place at the expert level between the representatives of the Russian Federation, the European Commission and Ukraine. Unfortunately, on the part of the Russian Federation, for some reason, Gazprom did not attend the consultations. They probably think that this is not very interesting for them, but all the others were present," Kobolyev told a roundtable Thursday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
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As UNIAN reported earlier citing Foreign Brief, EU Commissioner for Energy Maros Sefcovic and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts met in Kyiv July 17 to negotiate a new tariff for Russian gas to transit through Ukraine in a bid to stabilize EU energy imports.
For the EU, bilateral issues between Russia and Ukraine threaten its largest external energy source—some 30% of the bloc’s gas imports transit through Ukraine. These efforts come as Brussels seeks to take steps to develop the EU’s proposed “Energy Union” in a bid to boost long-term energy security. Such efforts include increasing LNG imports from the U.S. and the Middle East, as well as the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which allows Russian gas to bypass Ukraine but is opposed by EU’s eastern and Baltic member states as well as Ukraine.
With both Moscow and Kyiv locked in legal dispute, the EU’s role as a mediator in today’s trilateral talks is unlikely to lead to any material breakthrough, encouraging to continue to seek alternative suppliers.
The current transit contract between Ukraine and Russia's Gazprom was signed in 2009 for a period of 10 years. After its completion (from 2020), the Russian monopoly intends to minimize gas transit via Ukraine.