{"id":4970,"date":"2021-10-27T18:23:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-27T18:23:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/eu-to-give-moldova-60-million-euros-to-handle-energy-crisis.html"},"modified":"2021-10-27T18:23:05","modified_gmt":"2021-10-27T18:23:06","slug":"eu-to-give-moldova-60-million-euros-to-handle-energy-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediateka.online\/learnrussian\/eu-to-give-moldova-60-million-euros-to-handle-energy-crisis.html","title":{"rendered":"EU To Give Moldova 60 Million Euros To Handle Energy Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Moldovan

The European Union says it will provide Moldova with 60 million euros ($70 million) 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.<\/p>\n

The announcement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on October 27 comes after Moldova bought a million cubic meters of natural gas from Poland earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The government said it was the first purchase of gas from alternative sources in the history of independent Moldova.<\/p>\n

The country sandwiched between EU member Romania and Ukraine declared a state of emergency last week after its gas contract with Russia\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita has blamed Moldovagaz, whose main shareholder is Gazprom, for not supplying the required volume of gas — an accusation rejected by the company.<\/p>\n

Gavrilita, who is in Brussels for an EU-Moldova Association Council meeting on October 28, thanked von der Leyen for the EU\u2019s show of solidarity. The 60 million euros is in the form of a grant, not a loan.<\/p>\n

Some experts say Moscow has boosted prices to retaliate against Moldova after the country elected pro-Western President Maia Sandu last year.<\/p>\n

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on October 27 that talks with Moldova’s government on gas prices were "exclusively commercial."<\/p>\n

"There is no politicization here and there cannot be," he said.<\/p>\n

The country of 2.6 million people consumes 2.8 billion cubic meters of gas per year.<\/p>\n

Moldova\u2019s energy crisis comes as natural gas prices across Europe and other parts of the world have soared to record levels in recent weeks amid a global supply crunch.<\/p>\n