According to the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico Slovakia and the entire European Union are still being suffocated by high energy prices. At the last summit of European Union leaders he tried to pressure the European Commission to find a mechanism to reduce energy prices. „So far, it does not look like we have any effective tools at our disposal. The European Commission is rather going the way of reducing the administrative burden, but if a megawatt-hour of gas costs 45 euros in Europe and 8 euros in the United States, then we have no chance of competing,“ said the Prime Minister. According to Fico, Slovakia is still trying to restore gas transit from the east through Ukraine to Slovakia and further to the west. It is still working on importing Azerbaijani gas through Ukraine. However, it has not been possible to start this gas transit. „We are negotiating with Azerbaijan. We are constantly trying to do a swap operation. However, it runs into all sorts of technical problems. Therefore, we believe that peace negotiations will also pave the way for standard gas transit through Ukraine without any speculation and twists,“ Fico noted.
The Slovak Prime Minister pointed out that countries such as Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Bulgaria have gas that is 10% more expensive than other countries in Europe. „Because gas is not flowing from the east. This is a consequence of a policy that I will not support,“ Fico emphasized. The Prime Minister also drew attention to the fact that the European Union is postponing the so-called roadmap, which talks about cutting the union off from Russian energy. „Because everyone realizes that without gas from the east to the west, it will not work. The importance of the gas flow from the east to the west is very important,“ Fico stated. The summit of European Union leaders also discussed an action plan regarding the competitiveness of the union. One of the points was energy prices. However, the prime ministers have not resolved anything so far. „I want to reject the idea of some prime ministers who say that whatever else is left, we have to work with energy prices like we have now, and that we should plan for the future so that gas will cost as much as it costs now. But we have no reason to pay 40 or 45 euros per megawatt-hour for gas just because President Zelensky decided to stop the transit of gas through Ukraine to the west via Slovakia,“ Fico emphasized.
