Ministers of both countries and representatives of the Union were originally supposed to meet today in Brussels to discuss the consequences of the termination of the agreement on the transit of Russian gas to Europe through a pipeline leading through Ukraine. Its validity expired on January 1.
Slovakia, as well as Hungary, are lobbying for its extension, because its termination will probably lead to a lack of supplies or an increase in prices, reports . Concerns about this led to threats by Robert Fico that, if necessary, Slovakia will stop supplying electricity to Ukraine.
In the end, however, the meeting did not take place. According to information from the Slovak side, Kyiv backed out of the meeting: “Given that the Ukrainian side will not participate in tomorrow’s negotiations, the European Commission has decided to cancel the meeting. However, the European Commission, in cooperation with interested parties, is looking for an alternative date in which the meeting could take place. As soon as the date is known, we will inform the media,” the government office said yesterday.
However, Ukrainian Ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov gave this information in a slightly different way in an interview with Politico. According to him, the meeting with the Slovak representatives was initiated by Kyiv, in response to Fico’s threats to stop electricity. Ukraine is therefore interested in the negotiations – but there was a problem with its participation.
Ukrainian Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko was originally supposed to represent Ukraine at the three-day negotiations, but in the end he had to stay at home “due to the difficult situation in the energy sector”. Chentsov alludes to the fact that Ukraine has launched an early warning mechanism about electricity supplies. This happened “because of Fico’s threats to stop supplies,” the ambassador said.
Due to his non-participation, an online meeting was planned, but in the end the representatives of the European Commission decided to postpone the meeting to Thursday. According to its spokesman, the Commission is ready to resolve the situation and discuss it with all interested parties: “We continue to stay in close contact.”
According to our information, Prime Minister Robert Fico and Minister of Economy Denisa Saková will go to Brussels. For now, however, it is likely that it will only be a bilateral meeting, since in the current situation the Ukrainians will probably not even attend the new Thursday date.
