Volodymyr Demchyshyn: New gas and power market opens additional opportunities for European countries and for European security
Today, on November
19, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn is taking part in annual Energy and Economic Summit, which takes place through 18-20 November, 2015 in Istanbul, Republic of
Turkey.
According to the
visit agenda, Volodymyr Demchyshyn met with the European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action Miguel Arias Cañete. During the meeting the interlocutors discussed issues of efficient loading
of the Ukrainian energy system (in particular, gas transit network) with the
view to the process of transformation of Ukrainian market to comply with
European standards; the stage of elaboration of bills on the regulator and the
energy market; future Memorandum of cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in
the energy sector.
Volodymyr Demchyshyn noted that the new market provides additional
opportunities primarily for the European countries and for European security as
a whole. He added that Ukraine is changing from being a historic transit country
for Russian gas into a liquid market of the EU that can be the basis for
strengthening of Europe's energy security.
The stance of the
European Commission was that the Memorandum is crucial and it should fix not just
the commonplace “topics” of cooperation, in particular gas, the GTS, the
"winter" or "summer" packages, but interesting strategic
directions that will enable expanding cooperation between Ukraine and the EU in
the energy sector.
It should be
noted Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn is scheduled to speak
during discussion of the Atlantic Council’s Report on energy security in the
Black Sea region.
In the framework
of the summit Minister V. Demchyshyn is to hold a
series of meetings, namely with Minister of Energy of the Republic of Bulgaria
T. Petkova and the former U.S. Ambassador to
Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar, the founder of the AC.