(Bloomberg) -- Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico said he wasn’t ruling out a resumption of gas shipments through Ukraine after a transit deal between Kyiv and Moscow expired at the beginning of the year.
Fico met the European Union’s energy chief, Dan Jorgensen, in Brussels Thursday to discuss the recent halt in flows and its potential impact on energy prices in the region. Both the EU’s regulatory arm and the Slovak government agreed to continue talks at the political and technical level.
“The pipeline that runs through Slovakia has a capacity of almost 100 billion cubic meters” a year, Fico told reporters following the meeting. “I want to do everything to ensure it is used in the future.”
Fico has led a campaign to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to restart transit, citing higher energy costs for Slovakia and the whole region. He has elevated the issue to the top of the political agenda, making a controversial trip to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow and threatening Ukraine with reciprocal measures, including halting emergency power supplies.
On Thursday, he stepped up the pressure, saying his government could veto EU support for Ukraine, stop all humanitarian aid or end various benefits currently given to Ukrainians who fled the war to Slovakia.
“Yes, some can say what I am saying now is cruel, but what Zelenskiy is doing to us and the European Union is cruel too,” he said.
Higher Import Costs
While the EU has started diversifying gas supplies following Russia’s invasion of its neighbor, a group of central European member states — including Slovakia — still rely on fuel from Moscow. The halt in flows will add to import costs and hurt European competitiveness at a time when the 27-nation bloc is seeking to strengthen its position relative to the US and China, according to Fico.
Slovakia’s largest gas utility, Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel AS, has said it will pay about €90 million ($93 million) more a year to guarantee stable imports via different routes. It also warned that in the event of a cold winter, all of Europe has been left more vulnerable.
Fico said SPP considered options including gas purchases from Azerbaijan — a transaction that would involve a swap, with an Azeri company buying corresponding volumes from Russia and delivering to Europe. But Zelenskiy has rejected any arrangement that would ultimately send money to Russian coffers while the war continues.
The European Commission has repeatedly said the end of transit via Ukraine does not undermine EU energy security because countries have ample reserves for winter and have added more sources of supply. It aims to unveil a roadmap next month showing how it can end imports of Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
“We had a good and open discussion on the energy situation and wider implications of the end of the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine,” Jorgensen and Fico said in a joint statement. “We will continue discussing closely these issues, at both political and technical level.”
--With assistance from John Ainger and Michal Kubala.
(Updates with further Fico comments starting in fifth paragraph.)
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