Brussels, 24/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The Ukrainian crisis, its impact on the supply of Russian gas and the need for the EU to diversify its provision has led to multiple diplomatic meetings at the highest level. Whilst the EU, Russia and Ukraine were still trying to agree on a date for their consultations on the gas dispute between Moscow and Kiev, Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger was in Bratislava on Thursday 24 April, for a ministerial meeting with Slovakia and Ukraine on reverse flows. In Paris, President Hollande got behind the proposal of the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, for a European energy community, in order to break the Russian stranglehold.
Trilateral consultations. The Commission announced on Thursday that no agreement had as yet been reached on the date and time for trilateral consultations between the EU, Russia and Ukraine on the security of supply for the EU's purchases of Russian gas. Russia proposed holding a meeting in Moscow on 28 April, but this solution did not prove acceptable, confirmed Sabine Berger, the spokesperson to Oettinger, as we were going to press.
Last week, the Commission agreed to talks with Moscow and Kiev on the safety of gas supply, by request of the Russian President Vladimir Putin. On 10 April, Putin threatened to cut off supplies of gas to Ukraine unless Kiev paid its dues, sparking the risk of another gas war and jeopardising the EU's supplies. Since then, Putin has given Kiev one month to resolve its dispute with Moscow, with the threat of moving to a prepaid supply system if it fails to do so. Of the 133 billion cubic metres of Russian gas bought by the members of the EU, 65 transit through Ukraine every year, which equates to 25% of the EU's consumption.
Slovakia/Ukraine reverse flows. At the time of going to press, the meeting in Bratislava between Commissioner Oettinger, the Ukrainian Energy Minister, Yuri Prodan, and the Slovakian Minister for the Economy, Tomas Malatinsky, regarding the possibility of reversing gas flows between Slovakia and Ukraine, had just closed. The meeting aimed to prepare the protocol agreement on this. An arrangement of this kind would allow Ukraine to be supplied with up to 8 billion cubic metres by Slovakia by the end of the year. Gas could also be made available to Ukraine via the Hungarian and Polish gas pipeline networks.
Franco-Polish initiative for an energy union. On Thursday, the French President, François Hollande, and the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, presented a joint initiative to create a “European energy community”, which will be discussed at the European summit of June. The aim is to give Europe “more independence, more coherence and more solidarity in its energy policy”, stressed President Hollande (our translation). France and Poland see eye-to-eye on the six proposals made by the head of the Polish government in an open letter to the Financial Times of 22 April (see EUROPE 11065), with the aim of “convincing together the member states of the EU to move towards” the energy union put forward by Tusk. “An excellent project”, the French President stressed. According to Tusk, the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has “expressed his support” for this Franco-Polish proposal, whilst the Commission is working on energy security proposals ahead of the June summit. (EH)