Mogherini urges Russia's Gazprom to comply with Stockholm Arbitration court demands
The European Commission has called on Gazprom to meet the demands of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce (SCC), and to start supplying Ukraine with gas directly. A statement to this effect was made by High Representative of the EU Federica Mogherini following a meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
“Gazprom must meet its contractual obligations. The European Commission, including in the person of its commissioner Šefčovič, is actively working on this area. We are prepared to renew trilateral negotiations in this regard,” Mogherini stated.
On March 2, Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President of the European Commission, urged Naftogaz and Gazprom to resolve the matter of gas supply as quickly as possible. As he noted in his official statement, it could affect the gas supply to Europe.
Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said later that no trilateral negotiations between Russia, Ukraine and the EU are planned. “All of the legal proceedings take place on the basis of contracts and cooperation between commercial organizations, that is, between Gazprom and Naftogaz. And all of these issues need to be settled by the companies,” the minister explained.
In December 2017 and February 2018, the Arbitration Institute of the SCC announced its rulings in the disputes between Gazprom and Naftogaz.
Naftogaz was instructed to pay Gazprom $2 billion for the gas already supplied to Ukraine plus interest. Gazprom, in turn, was instructed to pay the Ukrainian company $4.63 billion for the under-delivery of gas according to the transit agreement. Thus Gazprom owes Naftogaz Ukraine a balance of roughly $2.6 billion.