Friday, 9 January 2009
Russia and the EU have reached an agreement on the deployment of international observers to monitor the transit of natural gas through the Ukraine, which is a crucial step towards the restoration of Russian gas supplies.
The news was announced by the Czech Presidency of the EU Thursday night, the UK newspaper The independent reported.
Earlier Thursday night the EU-Russia negotiations in Brussels nearly failed as the EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs announced Gazprom had rejected a possible deal because of it had insisted that the Ukraine allowed Russian monitors of the gas transit on its territory.
The EU has been trying to convince Russia that its monitoring mission would be sufficiently objective.
The Russian side finally approved the deal after talks between the Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, and German and Russian leaders.
Even though the monitoring agreement is supposed to lead to the timely restoration of Russian gas supplies through Ukrainian territory, the EU statements did not make it clear when this or even the deployment of the international monitors could be expected, the Independent points out.
While the EU-sponsored international mission to monitor the Russian natural gas transit through the Ukraine is supposed to restore the Russian supplies but it still leaves the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine gas prices dispute unclear.
