Robert Fico decided to go to Brussels. Bratislava's countermeasures - to stop gas transit - may involve stopping electricity exports to Ukraine, as well as restricting support for Ukrainian citizens staying in Slovakia.
The Slovak government coalition and the government will discuss next week what response measures to take to stop gas transit in Ukraine, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced in a video posted on his social media profile.
The delegation of the Slovak government is preparing to discuss the situation after the suspension of gas transit to Ukraine in Brussels on Tuesday of next week, after which the three-party Slovak government coalition will meet in Bratislava and the cabinet will also meet.
to make a decision on what adequate response measures will be taken to the "sabotage action" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, to the fact that the Ukrainian President stopped gas transit to Slovakia, Robert Fico said.
On January 1st, the delivery of gas coming from Ukraine stopped at the Nagykapos (Velké Kapusany) entry point on the Slovak-Ukrainian border, after Kyiv announced earlier that it would not extend the contract for the transit of Russian gas to Ukraine, which expired at midnight on December 31.
According to the Slovak Prime Minister's announcement, Bratislava's countermeasures to the stoppage of gas transit may involve the cessation of electricity exports to Ukraine and the restriction of support for Ukrainian citizens residing in Slovakia.
"The only alternative for Slovakia is to renew the transit or look for compensation mechanisms to replace the nearly 500 million euro revenue shortfall in the budget," said Robert Fico, quoted by Slovak public service news agency TASR.
Robert Fico emphasized: Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decision causes Slovakia a direct loss of 500 million euros per year due to the loss of transit revenues, and the member states of the European Union will have an additional expenditure of 60-70 billion euros due to the increase in gas prices alone, while the decision will cause virtually no damage to Russia.
"Only the United States of America will benefit from Zelensky's decision due to the increase in gas exports to Europe"
stated Robert Fico.
MTI
Front page photo:
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico arrives for the extended V4 meeting in Brussels on December 14, 2017, prior to the summit meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU countries. (MTI/EPA/Stephanie Lecocq)
