“On January 9, Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov confirmed to Radio Svoboda that Kyiv “maintains contacts with the European Commission on issues of our agenda.””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
“It was decided to create a high-level working group to consider this issue (the impact on the energy industry after the completion of the gas transit agreement – ed.) to solve the problems raised by Prime Minister Fizo… Our services in the commission are already working on the creation of this group.” – said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokeswoman for the European Commission, in response to RFE/RL’s questions.
According to the representative of the European Commission, the group will meet “in the coming weeks”, and it will include high-ranking officials of the Commission and Slovakia. It follows from this that there will be no representatives of Ukraine in it. RFE/RL is waiting for the Ministry of Energy’s comment on this matter, which it will publish as soon as it receives it.
On January 9, Ukraine’s ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov confirmed to Radio Svoboda that Kyiv “maintains contacts with the European Commission on issues of our agenda.”
“Of course, we are constantly in very close contact with Ukraine. As at the political level – between the European Commissioner and his colleague (by the Minister of Energy of Ukraine – ed.)as well as on the technical side,” Itkonen emphasized.
RFE/RL also asked the representative of the European Commission whether financial compensation to Slovakia from the EU is possible for the losses claimed by Prime Minister Robert Fico. Namely, EUR 500 million for payment for the transit of gas not from Russia. The possibility of such a development was neither confirmed nor denied, noting that this is a “process that is just beginning.”
“We will now monitor and determine various options based on a joint assessment of the situation. This will now be discussed by the working group… and then we will see how the EU can help. The key task of the high-level working group will be to identify and clarify the economic impact and search for a common understanding of the situation… We will be able to say more when everything starts to move,” Itkonen summarized.
On January 9, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen agreed to create a working group that will study the consequences of stopping the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine for the EU and individual member states.
After consultations with a profile official of the European Commission, Fico, talking to journalists in Brussels, again criticized Volodymyr Zelenskyi for stopping gas transit from the Russian Federation.
The Slovak Prime Minister demanded the restoration of supplies and repeated his threats if this did not happen. In particular, to stop the export of electricity to Ukraine, limit aid to its refugees in Slovakia, and also did not rule out that the EU will promise decisions related to Ukraine, which require unanimous approval by the member states. Among them, in particular, the extension of anti-Russian sanctions. The next time the EU should do it is at the end of January.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, did not comment on the fresh threats, but previously suggested that Robert Fico, who was recently hosted by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, “was instructed to open a second energy front against Ukraine.”