By Martin Banks - 8th January 2009
Russian Gazprom’s chief executive Alexey Miller has said that gas supplies to Europe will be resumed as soon as independent monitors are in place in Ukraine.
Speaking in parliament, Miller said that both Russia and Ukraine had accepted the use of international monitors to verify the transit of natural gas from Russia through Ukraine’s pipelines.
He told journalists that supplies would be resumed once the monitors have gained access to gas transportation facilities.
“Our urgent objective is to resolve this dispute and resume supplies to consumers in Europe as soon as possible,” he said. He declined, however, to offer an exact timetable as to when supplies might be restored.
He also criticised Ukraine “for not living up to its commitment as a gas transit country”, a situation he described as “crazy” - and offered reassurances that Russia wished to remain a reliable energy supplier.
Russia has confirmed the gas cut-off, but has said it is Ukraine’s fault because it had shut down the last pipeline carrying gas from Russia. Gazprom also said it is reducing supplies to compensate for the gas it accuses Ukraine of diverting.
About 80 percent of Russian gas to Europe is shipped through pipelines crossing Ukraine. Other smaller pipelines run through Belarus and Turkey.
Miller also endorsed proposals put forward by German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday for the creation of an international committee of monitors, comprising envoys from Russia and Ukraine, as well as the commission, whose aim would be to monitor gas supplies between Russia and Europe. He said that 10 EU member states had already pledged their support for such a body.
Miller was speaking after a meeting to discuss the crisis with parliament’s president, Hans-Gert Pöttering. Afterwards, the president said that while he supports “stable relations” with Russia, he wants to see gas supplies resumed immediately.
“We are taking the situation very seriously. Clearly, we want to help find a solution and support the use of international monitors,” Pöttering said.
Today’s flurry of activity in parliament was part of increasing diplomatic efforts to end the dispute. Both commission president José Manuel Barroso and Andris Piebalgs, EU energy commissioner, flew back to Brussels from meetings in Prague to meet Miller on Thursday.
Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek, which holds the EU presidency, hinted that future relations were at stake unless the dispute was resolved by Thursday, when Ukraine and Russia were holding the first face-to-face talks since the breakdown of negotiations 31 December.
Miller travelled from Moscow to Brussels with Oleh Dubyna, chairman of Naftogaz, the Ukrainian gas company, on Wednesday and met Barroso on Thursday to discuss the standoff.
Barroso asked the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers to resume gas supplies to the EU immediately.
He said it was unacceptable that supplies were being taken hostage by a pricing dispute between the two countries after Russia shut off all gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine on Wednesday, leaving tens of thousands of people in more than a dozen countries without heat during a winter cold snap.
Meanwhile, at a special meeting of the foreign affairs committee in parliament on Thursday, senior EU officials accused both nations of holding consumers hostage in their contract dispute.
Gunnar Wiegand, head of the commission’s unit for relations with Russia and acting director for eastern Europe and the southern Caucasus, told the packed meeting, “The EU will not take sides in this dispute which, let us remember, concerns two independent countries.
“However, we want to see normal gas supplies to Europe resumed immediately and insist that, in future, the supply of energy must not be used to gain leverage in such disputes,” he said.
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