Ukraine to Remain Important Transit Country, Says Šefčovič

The European Commission has officially thrown its weight behind Ukraine, saying it has to remain part of Europe’s gas network. 

"Despite the difficult political situation, Ukraine has proven during the winter 2014/15 to be a reliable transit partner for Russian gas. The EU believes that it is in the interest of all parties that Ukraine remains an important transit country,’ reads a document on the State of the Energy Union released by European authorities on Wednesday. 

European Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič said on Wednesday that the Nord Stream-II project--consisting of a third and fourth line expansion of the original Nord Stream project--has to fully comply with the EU law. 

“If built, Nord Stream 3 and 4 would not give access to a new source of supply and would further increase transmission capacity from Russia to the EU, while even now this is only used at 50% rate," he said during a conference in Brussels.  

In other Ukraine news, on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow is open to restructuring Ukraine’s $3-billion debt. Moscow is asking for guarantees from the U.S., the EU or international financial organisations to proceed. 

However, Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance has reportedly said that Kiev has not yet received Russia’s formal proposal about its debt restructuring

Meanwhile, Russia continues negotiations with Germany and Turkey.

“Turkey is interested, as we were told, in maintaining and increasing the sales of our goods on its market, and in this case, we are talking about gas deals. And we looked at various options for resolving the issues that are of mutual interest to us,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.