The member organizations of the National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum consider unacceptable Gazprom’s procrastination of the negotiations on natural gas supplies to the Republic of Moldova. In a public appeal, the signatories say the behavior of the Russian side exhibits all the signs of blackmail, as this delay has no economic or technical motivation, IPN reports.
“We appeal to the Moldovan Government to not accept any political conditionality with the Russian side and in case Gazprom’s delivery of gas on the previous conditions is not accepted, to boost the process of identifying alternative sources through Energocom from traders operating on international exchanges. At the moment, the Republic of Moldova is ready in terms of infrastructure to import natural gas through the southern, northern, western and eastern pipelines. Therefore, we believe that the Republic of Moldova has all the prerequisites to examine a multitude of other options for supplying the Republic of Moldova with natural gas, considering in particular the Iasi-Ungheni pipeline and the reverse supply via the Isaccea pipeline, as well as the traditional routes in the east and north of the country,” says the appeal.
The NGOs noted that even if alternative sources of natural gas will be more expensive, the price of possible political conditionality in relation to Gazprom/the Russian Federation may be immeasurably higher than the prices set on international exchanges. “At the same time, the social impact of higher tariffs for consumers can be mitigated by targeted compensation measures for socially vulnerable groups. We call on the Republic of Moldova's development partners to provide financial, technical and political support to help the Republic of Moldova strengthen its energy security. We call on all political forces in the country to avoid speculation on the energy crisis and to unite their efforts in the interest of the Republic of Moldova, to promote the right to have the freedom to purchase natural gas from various sources,” said the signatory organizations.
The public appeal was signed by Expert-Grup Independent Think-Tank, the Institute for European Policies and Reforms, the European Institute for Political Studies of Moldova, the National Youth Council of Moldova, WatchDog.MD Community and another 29 organizations.
