EC and Slovakia to set up working group after Ukraine halts gas transit

The European Commission (EC) and Slovakia will set up a working group to find a solution in the energy sector against the background of the termination of Russian gas transit through Ukraine. This was announced by EC spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen on January 9.

"We agreed to set up a high-level working group to further study and identify options based on a joint assessment of the situation and to see how the EU can help," Itkonen said, her words quoted on the EC website.

She said the decision was made during a meeting attended by European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo. There was an informative and open discussion, discussing the wider implications of halting Russian gas transit through Ukraine. Bratislava and the EC plan to continue to discuss further between them on this topic.

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Earlier in the day, Gunnar Lindemann, a member of Berlin's Chamber of Deputies, told Izvestia that the cessation of gas transit to Western Europe as early as this month would cause a serious rise in gas prices, which would hit the poorest people in the region first and foremost. They may not be able to pay such bills and may be left without heating during the winter.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov pointed out on the same day that the beneficiary of stopping transit through Ukraine is the USA, while European countries, on the contrary, are interested in receiving more competitive gas from Russia.

On January 8, Fitzo accused Ukraine of damaging Slovakia because of its refusal to extend gas transit. The prime minister also said that the outcome of his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 22, 2024, was to ensure stable gas supplies to Slovakia for domestic consumption at affordable prices.

"Gazprom" announced the suspension of gas supplies through Ukraine on January 1.

At the end of August 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of office expired in May of the same year, said that Ukraine would not extend the gas transit agreement with Russia, which expires at the end of 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin later said that the country was not giving up gas transit through Ukrainian territory.