The Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the European Commission discussed the implementation of the Roadmap for the integration of electricity markets, approved the Roadmap for the development of renewable gases, and considered further steps towards reforming the gas market. This was the subject of a meeting of the EU-Ukraine High-Level Working Group on Energy Markets held on 23 October.

“I am pleased that the number of our meetings is growing, and this is logical given the development of integration relations between Ukraine and the EU. It is also important that the work of our High-Level Group is beginning to go beyond the electricity sector. We expect that the joint monitoring will contribute to the successful integration of the Ukrainian and EU markets,” said Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak. “Over the past year, Ukraine has made important progress in reforming the electricity market, in particular, REMIT has been implemented, auctions for capacity allocation with neighbouring countries have been introduced, and NPC Ukrenergo has joined the European ITC mechanism.”

For her part, Mechthild Wörsdörfer, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, noted that Ukraine had already made significant progress in implementing European energy legislation.

The meeting participants also discussed the process of drafting a law on the implementation of the Electricity Integration Package, which is a necessary step towards further unification of the Ukrainian and European day-ahead and intraday markets, as well as joining the EU’s joint platforms for the provision of balancing services.

The parties approved a Roadmap for the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership on Biomethane, Hydrogen and other Synthetic Gases.

“The first biomethane producers are already operating in Ukraine and plan to start exporting it to the European Union. At this stage, it is important for us to promptly join the EU Database for Biofuels as a full-fledged participant in the European biomethane market,” said Deputy Energy Minister Mykola Kolisnyk, proposing to hold an additional technical meeting with the European Commission.

The participants also agreed to develop a Roadmap for reforming and liberalising the gas market, a draft of which has been proposed by the European Commission.

The Ukrainian side also informed the European Commission about the procedure for electing members of the Supervisory Board of NPC Ukrenergo.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Government Office for Coordination of European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, the European Commission’s Directorates for Energy (DG ENER), Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), the Energy Community Secretariat, and Ukrainian energy companies.

Background

The High-Level Working Group on Energy Markets started its work on 27 October 2021. The focus of the Working Group is on market reforms to fully integrate the energy markets of Ukraine and the EU.