What goes on in Poland on the 19th of July.
Talks between the EC-Ukraine and Russia on gas will be continued
Tripartite talks were held in Berlin with the participation of the energy ministers of Russia and Ukraine and the vice-president of the European Commission for Energy Union about the future of gas supplies through Ukrainian territory after the end of the current transmission contract. This is important because it ends on December 31, 2019, when the alternative route, ie Nord Stream 2, criticized by the Ukrainians is to be ready.
Commissioner Maros Sefcovic recognized that the talks were productive and inaugurated a „complicated, long process”. For this reason, the terms of the „tripartite process”, that is regular meetings, which are to lead to the signing of a new transmission contract between Russia and Ukraine were agreed. Sefcovic expressed the hope that it would be in line with the European Union’s antitrust law. Ukrainians are obliged to implement them as a party to the Energy Community, ie the dimension of foreign EU energy policy.
To be continued
After the meeting in Berlin on July 17 there will be more, now with the participation of high-level experts. The topics of the talks will be the demand for natural gas in the European Union, ways of applying EU law in Ukraine and their impact on the transmission contract, the role of the certified transmission system operator and tariffs. The Ukrainian side signaled readiness to make concessions to Russia, as informed by BiznesAlert.pl. According to Kommersant, transmission via Ukraine will probably be more expensive than through Nord Stream 2.
The meeting of experts is to take place in mid-September. It will prepare the ground for the next trilogue meeting at the political level that would take place in October. According to Sefcovic, the appropriate frequency of meetings is six to eight weeks. He claims that this will allow him to build trust between the negotiators.
Objective: transmission contract
– We all know the fundamental question: whether on January 1, 2020 we will have an agreement on long-term gas supplies to the European Union via Ukraine on commercially reliable terms – said the Commissioner.