Vilnius, October 17 - Neftegaz.RU. The European Commission is getting ready to start consultations with Russia over the switching of the Baltic states' power networks off the post-Soviet system and their synchronization with that of western Europe, The Baltic times reported.
« When we have our next meeting with the Russian energy minister … we will brief him also about this desynchronization process,» European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, in charge of energy, said in an interview with BNS Lithuania.
The Slovak diplomat also said that all parties involved in this process must be sure about transparency of these processes as «I don't think that Russia or Belarus needs surprise in the field of electricity supply» .
Sefcovic also assured that the Commission would demand compliance with the highest safety standards from Belarus over the Astravyets NPP, refusing, however, to comment in detail on Lithuania's declarations calling for blocking power from this facility.
Attending an international forum, held by Lithuania's social democrats last weekend, the European commissioner also said measures would be taken to make sure Ukraine did not lose gas transit over the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
«This project has been from the beginning very controversial because the consortium which is promoting the project was presented as purely commercial... And we have at least half of the member states who are opposed to this project for different reasons, but one of them being that simply for Central Eastern Europe it is not acceptable, that the transit through Ukraine would be shut down because it would have very bad repercussions for Ukraine and for energy security for Central and Eastern Europe», Sefcovic noted.
