President of the Slovak Republic holds talks in Kiev

The Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič pays an official visit to Ukraine to discuss with his counterpart Viktor Yushchenko the possibilities of gas supply renewal to Slovakia.
The discussion of the Presidents, which took almost two hours, was stopped in order for Ukraine to check Naftogaz’s technical possibilities for gas supply according to the proposed Slovak option. In addition, the Slovak delegation examines the possibilities to guarantee swap the supply of Russian gas with the Gazprom representatives. Therefore, the bilateral meeting of the Slovak and Ukrainian President should continue in the afternoon.

The Slovak President came to Ukraine with an explicit request of 22 mil. m3 of natural gas per day from storage facilities in western Ukraine.“We have only one goal. Our situation is seriously critical. The gas swap between Russia, Ukraine and Slovakia is the only option we can talk about,” Ivan Gašparovič said during the meeting with President Yushchenko. The President added that “the positive decision of Ukraine concerning Slovakia will be appreciated by Slovak citizens as well as the entire European Union. Your decision may be sensible and beneficial for the political future of Ukraine in the context of relations with the European Union”.

The Minister of Economy Ľubomír Jahnátek pointed out that the Slovak economy was working at only 60% which means that about one thousand of its largest companies are not able to be in full production. “Should the gas supply to Slovakia not be restored by the end of the month, we will be forced to pursue the regulation level No. 9 which means a total suspension of the gas supply for industry and restricted heating for households," the Slovak Minister said.

The Minister added that if Ukraine would not supply Slovakia with gas we will have to use another option – supply from Germany through the Jamal gas pipeline.