EU Aims to Maintain Ukraine as Important Gas Transit Country

The European Union will continue its efforts aimed at keeping Ukraine as the important partner of the bloc in the field of natural gas transportation, Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli said.

KIEV (Sputnik) — On Monday, Mingarelli held talks with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Kistion reiterating that cooperation in the energy sector had remained one of the main spheres in the cooperation between Kiev and Brussels during the past 25 years.

The EU diplomat said on Monday that the European partners were closely monitoring the reforms of the Ukrainian energy sector, and would continue to exert the necessary efforts to ensure that Ukraine would remain an important partner in the issue of natural gas transportation, understanding Kiev's concerns about the recent Brussels' decisions regarding the main pipelines, according to Kistion's press service.

The sides had also discussed the issue of the EU visa-free regime for Ukraine and the European diplomat agreed that Brussels would do its utmost to help the visa-free regime with Kiev become true to life, the press service of the Ukrainian official added.

Despite the fact that the European Commission has consistently advocated for the gas transit through Ukraine, it has recently expanded the access of Russian energy giant Gazprom to the Opal pipeline. The Opal connects the Russia-initiated Nord Stream pipeline with Europe’s gas transportation network, up to 90 percent, preserving the last 10 percent as a reserve for the third countries.