Ukraine, Russia and the European Commission are apparently ready to sign a deal that will prevent the shutdown of a key natural gas supply route. On December 20, Maroš Šefčovič, the vice president of the EC, announced that the parties had agreed in principle to sign a new gas delivery contract to replace the one that expires at the end of this year.
Although the draft contract has not yet been approved by the Ukrainian and Russian government, Šefčovič described it as a breakthrough. “After these very intensive talks, I am very glad to say that we reached an agreement in principle on all key elements, which I believe is very positive news for Europe, for Russia and Ukraine,” he said.
Šefčovič did not divulge any details of the new gas delivery deal. However, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak indicated that Moscow and Kyiv had come very close to hammering out all the details of the contract.
Ukraine has long been a key transit route for Russian gas exports to Europe, but the two countries have often disagreed on financial and logistical issues related to the operation of Soviet-built pipeline networks. In response, Russia has built a number of bypass pipelines in order to maintain its market share in Europe.