By Martin Banks and Sarah Collins - 7th January 2009
The EU has handled the dispute just right and we support what it has done
US assistant secretary of state for European affairs Daniel Fried on the EU's role in the Ukraine-Russia gas standoff
America’s outgoing assistant secretary of state for European affairs has endorsed the role the EU is playing in the gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine.
Speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Daniel Fried said, "The EU has handled the dispute just right and we support what it has done.”
European commission president José Manuel Barroso has called on Ukraine and Russia to restore the supply of gas to the EU immediately, warning that their reputations were at stake.
A delegation from the European parliament is to meet executives from the Russian state-owned oil giant Gazprom and Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state energy firm, on Thursday.
Describing the current standoff between Moscow and Kiev as "very troubling", Fried said that it had "damaged Russia’s reputation as a reliable supplier of gas".
Several EU countries have been completely cut off from gas supplied through Ukraine, while others have found their supplies drastically reduced, at a time when temperatures in Europe are plummeting.
Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, added that the dispute had "dramatically escalated" to the point where countries with no involvement in the dispute, such as Slovakia, Poland and Bulgaria, were now directly affected.
"Why are these countries being penalised when they have done nothing wrong," he asked.
Turning to other matters, Fried admitted that the US-led war on terror and Iraq had "crippled" relations between the EU and US, but said that transatlantic relations are now "in a far better shape" than they were four years ago.
He added that he expects the incoming Barack Obama administration to "build on this".
Fried, in Brussels for meetings at Nato headquarters, said, "One of the hard lessons we have learned in the past four years is that whatever issues you have to face, it is better to face them together rather than doing it alone."
Fried said the new US administration and the wider international community now face a "huge challenge" over Afghanistan and warned that a lasting solution for the war-torn country will take time.
"The relative success we have had in Iraq has been the result of action both on the political and security fronts, and a multi-dimensional approach will similarly be needed in Afghanistan."
The career diplomat said he had no idea what he will do when he stands down from his current post later this month.
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