The European Union said it will provide the Republic of Moldova with €60mln to help the country manage its natural gas crisis triggered by Chisinau‘s failure to agree on a new energy deal with traditional supplier Russia, according to RFE/RL.
The announcement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday comes after the Republic of Moldova bought a million cubic meters of natural gas from Poland earlier this week.
The Republic of Moldova’s Prime Minister, Natalia Gavrilita who is in Brussels for an EU-Moldova Association Council meeting on Thursday, thanked von der Leyen for the EU’s show of solidarity. The €60mln is in the form of a grant, not a loan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that talks with the Republic of Moldova’s government on gas prices were „exclusively commercial.”
„There is no politicization here and there cannot be,” added Peskov.
The Republic of Moldova, sandwiched between EU member Romania and Ukraine declared a state of emergency last week after its gas contract with Russia’s state-controlled Gazprom, the largest supplier of natural gas to Europe, expired at the end of last month, and the two sides failed to agree on details of a new long-term deal.
Gazprom has extended the contract to the end of October while slashing its gas supply by about a third and raising the price to $790 per cubic meter from $550 last month. The government in Chisinau says it will continue talks with Gazprom and seek a „fair” price.