BRUSSELS: EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, the broker for crunch gas talks between Ukraine and Russia, said yesterday that an overall agreement could take days to be reached.
“Maybe in next days, not tonight,” Oettinger said in response to a question as he arrived at the European Commission for more talks with energy ministers from Ukraine and Russia.
EU-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia to resolve a bitter gas dispute resumed yesterday amid signs the worst East-West stand-off since the Cold War is easing. Another round of negotiations between Oettinger, Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak and Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan broke up early yesterday without an accord. The decision to resume talks in Brussels comes on the eve of a Russian deadline for Ukraine to cover a debt of $4.5bn or have its shipments end today.
At talks earlier this month, all sides agreed that as long as they continued, there would be no Russian gas cut-off.
Ukraine has refused to pay the gas bill in protest at Russia’s decision to nearly double the price in the wake of the February ouster of Kremlin-friendly president Viktor Yanukovych after months of pro-EU protests.
About 15 percent of Europe’s gas from Russia transits through Ukraine — a dependence that EU nations have been trying to limit ever since Moscow turned the taps off in similar disputes in 2006 and 2009. AFP
