By Anne-France White - 13th September 2006
The EU and Ukraine are to work more closely on energy issues to ensure greater security of supply, Benita Ferrero-Waldner has announced.
The EU’s external relations commissioner met Ukraine’s new Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovitch on his first visit to Brussels on September 14 to discuss further steps in EU-Ukraine relations.
“I have just signed a memorandum of understanding which leads the way to a European financing scheme for oil and gas metres for use on the pipelines across Ukraine’s borders,” she said after their first meeting.
“I think this is a very concrete cooperation to increase the transparency, reliability and safety of supplies to Ukraine, but also transit to the EU,” she added.
EU concerns about overdependence on Russian gas became acute after the January 2006 price standoff between Ukraine and Russia.
At the time, gas supplies to several EU countries were disrupted after Russia stopped delivering gas to Ukraine for several days over a row on prices.
The EU said after the crisis that it would have to “learn the lesson” and find ways of improving the security of energy supplies.
“The memorandum of understanding that has just been signed by the commissioner really opens up the way for the creation of national measures in terms of implementing an energy strategy between the EU and Ukraine,” Yanukovitch said after the meeting.
“Eventually, it will give us an opportunity to work on the diversification of oil and gas supplies and it will give us an opportunity to launch a number of interesting joint projects in the energy sector.”
Ukraine, which is in a highly strategic position between the EU and Central Asia’s oil fields, is currently drawing up plans to upgrade its pipelines and bolster its energy markets.
State-owned company Naftogaz recently announced plans to spend €3.5bn over the next four years to modernise its Soviet-era network of natural gas pipelines, which supply Europe with much of its gas.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschchenko has also been in talks with the government of oil-rich Azerbaijan on building a new pipeline to transport Caspian Sea oil to Europe.
But on his trip to Brussels, Yanukovitch – Yuschchenko’s Soviet-backed opponent who was ousted after the Orange Revolution before making a comeback as prime minister – would not be drawn on whether Ukraine would fully side with the EU over Russia.
“We will not have policies of opposition between the two sides,” he said, mentioning the country’s new energy policies as an example of “reuniting interests” between the country’s pro-western and pro-Russia sides.
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