European commission urges end to gas dispute

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said today the EU executive was confident that Russia and Ukraine would solve a gas transit dispute that threatens Europe’s supply of natural gas.

“The situation has shown how vulnerable the Union is to shortages of gas supply,” he said in a short statement broadcast on the European Commission’s television service EbS.

He said a meeting of representatives of EU member states and the gas industry tomorrow would discuss how they would react to the current crisis and deal with future threats to Europe’s gas supply.

“We should be always prepared,” he said. “We should be able to supply our citizens with energy resources.”

EU spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said earlier it was best for the two countries to solve the dispute between themselves.

“This is first and foremost a dispute between a gas supplier and transit operator,” he said.

“There is no immediate crisis of supply in the European Union.”

OAO Gapzrom and its Ukrainian counterpart, Naftogaz, were scheduled to resume talks over the pricing dispute later today, the RIA-Novosti news agency cited Russia’s Gazprom as saying.

Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom halted deliveries to Ukraine on Sunday because Kiev had refused to meet its demands for a fourfold price increase.

European buyers said today they had started receiving full supplies after the Russian monopoly increased shipments through Ukraine following a chorus of protest over its decision.

Laitenberger said the European Commission would suggest ways European countries could work more closely together on energy policy before an EU summit in March.

“This is clearly not a one-off question,” he said.