Moldova's pro-European prime minister said on Thursday the ex-Soviet state's separatist Transdniestria region had to fulfil several conditions or risk being plunged into a new energy crisis with power cuts and heating and water shortages. Prime Minister Dorin Recean was taking part in a public online discussion nearly a week after gas reached Transdniestria's 350,000 residents for the first time in a month thanks to a 30 million euro grant from the European Union, Reuters reports, quoted by IPN.
According to the quoted source, the emergency gas supply extends only to February 10, when a new arrangement must take effect to ensure gas is purchased and delivered to the pro-Russian region.
Recean restated the conditions set down by the EU this week for a proposed further 60 million euro grant - mainly evidence of an improved human rights record in the region and increases in prices charged for heavily subsidized power, water and heat. The region's leaders have made no comment on the conditions.
Recean said he saw two scenarios unfolding. "The first is they go on to the next stage of EU assistance and for that they need to fulfil the conditions," he said. "If they don't agree, they have to find a solution on their own."
Reuters noted that the region has long relied on gas from Russian giant Gazprom shipped through neighboring Ukraine, with Russia providing the gas free as "humanitarian assistance.
