Kiev (AFP)
Gas prices in Europe and the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline: the energy issue should be at the heart of the Ukraine-EU summit on Tuesday, especially as the issue constitutes a growing source of Kiev's grievances against its European allies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will welcome European Council leaders Charles Michel and European Commission leaders Ursula von der Leyen to Kiev.
The summit comes in the midst of soaring gas prices in Europe, bad news for Kiev which wants to slow down the commissioning of Nord Stream 2, a gas pipeline with a capacity of 55 billion m3 per year directly connecting Russia and Germany bypassing Ukraine.
What, according to Moscow, stabilize prices.
For the EU, this tube is not a priority, because it does not reduce the dependence on Russian gas, but it has not fought against it either.
If the subject is sensitive, it is because the gas pipeline risks depriving the Ukrainian ally of at least $ 1.5 billion per year affected for the transit of Russian gas through its territory.
The Ukrainian presidency therefore swears that it will "fight to the end" to prevent the entry into service of Nord Stream 2, which is still awaiting the green light from a German regulator.
President Zelensky had notified Chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of August that the tube was a "dangerous geopolitical weapon" of Moscow.
The German leader said she had guarantees that Russia would extend the transit contract expiring in 2024 and thus the revenues of Ukraine, one of the poorest countries in Europe and in conflict with the Russians.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, August 22, 2021 in Kiev SERGEY DOLZHENKO POOL / AFP / Archives
On Tuesday, Mr. Michel and Ms. von der Leyen will try to reassure Kiev once again, a European official said on condition of anonymity.
They will insist on the European commitment to "of course" guarantee "the role of Ukraine as a gas transit country", according to this official.
- Ukrainians "ignored" -
Ahead of the summit, the EU on Monday imposed sanctions on eight officials - judges, prosecutors and members of the security services - accused of cracking down on opponents of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Poutine stressed to him last week that his priority was not to put his Ukrainian adversary "in a difficult position", but to be an "absolutely reliable partner" of Europe in energy matters.
Nord Stream 2 is fully completed Patricio ARANA AFP / Archives
Russia has also denied fueling the current surge in gas prices to wrest contracts or accelerate the commissioning of Nord Stream 2.
In Kiev, these assertions are far from convincing, the country being torn since 2014 by a war with pro-Russian separatists and its Crimean peninsula having been annexed by Moscow.
Ukraine therefore criticizes Europeans for their timidity, whether it is about gas, military cooperation or its prospects for integration into NATO and the EU.
For their part, the Europeans are calling for more efforts in Kiev to reform, in particular its notoriously corrupt judicial system.
However, these have been dragging on for years.
"We are going to encourage our Ukrainian friends to go a little faster," the European official noted on condition of anonymity.
According to him, the summit will above all be an opportunity for Europeans to "reaffirm their commitment to strengthen Ukraine's political association and economic integration with the EU".
Russian President Vladimir Putin, October 4, 2021 in Novo-Ogaryovo, near Moscow Evgeny Paulin SPUTNIK / AFP / Archives
No major advances are therefore expected.
For Leonid Litra, analyst at the New Europe center in Kiev, "there is tension and grievances on both sides", but on the Ukrainian side, we simply feel "ignored".
© 2021 AFP