Naftogaz’ Prepayments, Trilateral Talks on DCFTA Positive Signals Toward Pacification

While Naftogaz was transferring $32 million to Gazprom, Russia, Ukraine and the EU held trilateral talks on the implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement/Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (AA/DCFTA). 

European authorities showed some openness, making conciliatory remarks, but confirmed that the treaty will be provisionally applied from 1 January 2016. 

‘While some of the issues can be addressed in the context of the existing flexibilities available in the DCFTA, and others in the context of the current bilateral or trilateral and plurilateral cooperation frameworks, the Parties have agreed to intensify their efforts and task their experts to achieve practical solutions to the concerns raised by Russia’ reads the note released on Monday. 

The parts will be called to focus on customs cooperation, technical barriers to trade (TBT), and sanitary and phytosanitary issues (SPS).

As said, also on Monday, Naftogaz announced it has transfer additional funds to Gazprom, increasing its May pre-payments to $102 million. 

Meanwhile, Ukraine and the United States signed an Agreement on granting loan guarantees to Ukraine worth USD 1 bn.

“On behalf of the Government and people of Ukraine, I would like to express sincere gratitude to the USA for their constant and unwavering support. This Agreement on granting credit guarantees is the cornerstone of this support much needed for our country at this critical moment," Minister of Finance of Ukraine Natalie Jaresko said in a separate press release.