Ukraine Wants Joint Gas Company with Russia, EU

President of the European Council, Belgian Herman Van Rompuy (R) welcomes Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, October 13, 2010. EPA/BGNES

Ukraine has offered the establishment of a three-way joint company with Russia and the EU to guarantee the trade of natural gas supplies.

The aim of the new company will be to guarantee that risks that arose in the past will be avoided, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said Monday, as cited by Ukrainian media.

The new design proposed by the Ukrainian government is supposed to help avoid a situation such as the gas war between Russia and Ukraine in January 2009, which left Europe without Russian natural gas for three weeks in the middle of the winter.

Azarov argued that the best interest of Russia, Ukraine, and the EU – a supplier, a transit country, and a buyer – is provide guarantees among one another for years to come.

In his words, the three parties will hold a meeting to discuss this idea on November 22, 2010, in Brussels, the same day of the EU-Ukraine summit.

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