EU to allocate €64 mln for gas supplies to Moldova

The European Union (EU) will allocate a €64m grant for gas and electricity supplies to Moldova and the unrecognized Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic (TMR). This was announced by Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean on Friday, January 31.

"Today the government will sign with the European Commission (EC) a grant agreement, under which we will receive €64 million in free support," Recean wrote on his Facebook page (part of Meta, an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia).

He explained that €30 million of the allocated money is intended for the purchase of gas and electricity for both banks of the Dniester. Thus, €20 million will be used for the purchase of gas as humanitarian aid to Transnistria, and €10 million for the purchase of electricity for the needs of the right bank of the Dniester. The remaining €34 million will be used as budgetary support for Moldova, Recean specified.

"We've been without heat for a month this winter."

Transnistrian President Vadim Krasnoselsky on the gas crisis, sabotage by Chisinau and assistance from Russia

The day before, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Moldova was interested in using the energy crisis as a weapon against Transnistria. The diplomat noted that the Russian side had offered a mechanism for purchasing gas and supplying it to the DMR under new conditions. However, according to her, Chisinau prevented the implementation of this scheme.

On the same day, DMR Foreign Minister Vitaliy Ignatiev said that at the moment there are no alternatives and mechanisms for gas supplies from Russia to Transnistria. He believed that the sooner Moldova agrees and realizes gas supplies, the sooner electricity will be supplied to the republic. Ignatiev also added that the EC's offer of gas aid in the form of a €30 million grant is nothing more than a "media ploy on water" that will not become a "lifeline" from the EU.

Gas supplies from Russia to Moldova and Transnistria stopped on January 1 due to Ukraine 's refusal to extend the agreement on transit through its territory and debts of the Moldovan side to Gazprom. In mid-January, it became known that Russia was ready to provide assistance to the DMR and start humanitarian gas supplies.