Kiev protesters gather, EU dangles aid promise

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered in central Kiev, rebuilding barricades torn down by police, on Thursday as the European Union held out a promise of increased aid for Ukraine if it signed a trade and cooperation pact.

Ukraine's first deputy prime minister Serhiy Arbuzov flew to Brussels with a high-level delegation seeking billions of euros of aid from the EU in return for signing the agreement, which Kiev suddenly backed away from last month.

He said Ukraine, which is on the brink of bankruptcy, would "soon sign" the accord, but declined to provide any date.

EU enlargement chief Stefan Fuele pledged more aid to Kiev if it signed the agreement, and to help it negotiate a loan from the IMF, but gave no figures.

>

Ukraine's Prime Minister Mykola Azarov was quoted as saying on Wednesday he had asked the EU for 20 billion euros ($27 billion) in aid to offset the cost of signing the EU deal.

Read more: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/12/13/uk-ukraine-idUKBRE9B908520131213

---

The deal which Yanukovich rejected involved support from the EU of 1 billion euros only.

The IMF had already made clear that any loans must be subject to substantial increase in consumer gas prices in the Ukraine where gas is currently sold to consumers at below cost to the government. That was to help ensure ability to repay the loans

Projected amounts involved in effective costs to the Ukraine here :

It remains unclear how much the EU, which has said it will not join a bidding war for Ukraine, is willing to offer. Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov estimates the country would need 160 billion euros ($220 billion) to adapt to the free-trade zone proposed by the European Union.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_EU_FIGHTING_FOR_UKRAINE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-12-12-04-51-25 see last but one para in article

$220 billion is a very large hole to fill albeit that is over a period of years.

[BelgianMadCow]

1. It's all about the money

The EU not involved in a bidding war? Right. The EU had better tackle its own democratic legitimacy concerns and banking crisis before expanding even further. Yes, I'm a leftie eurosceptic. I want a european union, but definitely not THIS one.

Thanks for posting though, dipsydoodle. Knew it was you before I clicked the thread on DU home

[dipsydoodle]

2. I'm convinced

that the actual ultimate aim of this is getting the Ukraine in NATO. It is however quite clear now that would be at the expense of their economy.

Elsewhere there seems to another scam in pipeline.....no pun intended, Slovakia has offered to reverse feed gas to the Ukraine at a lower price than the Ukraine pays Russia under the agreement made by Yulia Tymoshenko. The Ukraine would benefit from that because they would already have creamed off the transit fees for getting it to Slovakia in the first place. The downside of course is that it would lower their purchases of gas from Russia and Yulia Tymoshenko's agreement just happened to include a minimum volume agreement which they are having difficulty in meeting anyway.

[BelgianMadCow]

5. that NATO analysis makes sense

also helps explaining the presence of Victoria Nuland at the heart of the protests.

Interesting point about slovakian gas! Hadn't heard about that angle.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Slovakia agrees to reverse gas to Ukraine

Pipeline operators in Ukraine and Slovakia are on the verge of signing a deal that will allow the European Union to ship gas through Slovakia to Ukraine, reducing Kiev's dependence on Russia, the European Commission and Ukraine said yesterday (19 November).

The pipeline flow agreement could also help to bring about a historic partnership agreement between the EU and Ukraine, which both Russia and the EU are vying to tie into their respective spheres of influence.

Asked whether a deal was about to be signed, Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Minister Eduard Stavytsky told Reuters: "Yes, no doubt."

European Commission spokeswoman Marlene Holzner said: "We consider that we are very close to a deal ... The content of the deal has been agreed, whereby the gas will flow from West to East through Slovakia to Ukraine. It's just a matter of signing, which should be in the next few days."

http://www.euractiv.com/energy/slovakia-agrees-reverse-gas-ukra-news-531820

Interesting how they fail to note it would be Russian gas which was reverse fed.

[newthinking]

3. That gas subsidy is crucial-This will seriously hurt their people

Having relatives there, I have been very hopeful in their integrating with the EU. But the more I hear about how the EU is going about it the more concerned I am that indeed, as Yanukovich is declaring, it could really hurt people there.

The reason that the government subsidizes the cost of gas to the population is because it keeps the bulk of their population from living in unheated housing in winter. Why does the WTO care so much about this essentially social program that they must do this to their people (make them bear the full retail cost)?

As for the "bidding war", Ukraine has massive farmlands that would be of incredible benefit to the EU once they are properly developed. That is worth a lot for the EU. There is a case to be made that more help in making the transition better for the Ukrainian people would be a good investment for both Ukraine and the EU.

[BelgianMadCow]

4. Conditions the EU and IMF (hello, troika?) are wanting to impose on Ukraine

look like the troika (who ever elected THEM?) recipe for southern Europe. Screw the People before anything else. I had the same reaction to the gas subsidy thing as you did. Can't have governments keeping their people from freezing eh. Nooo, must let the Holy Free (rigged) Market do its bidding. Which is asset stripping. Now, whether Russia wouldn't engage in similar practices is another matter. The only solution is energy independece, but I don't know whether that's even remotely possible for Ukraine.

[dipsydoodle]

7. The future looks even dimmer when the South Stream pipeline comes online.

South Stream bi-passes a lot of the the need for gas to be routed through the Ukraine into the EU.

EU to renegotiate South Stream gas pipeline with Russia.

EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger is to visit Moscow next month to renegotiate South Stream gas pipeline deals on behalf of several member states, he said Thursday. The announcement comes days after the European Commission told the countries through which the pipeline is to pass that the deals they had struck with Russia are in violation of EU law.

"We have been given a mandate by the member states to negotiate in their name with the Russian partners," Oettinger said at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Brussels.

The countries he is to negotiate on behalf of are Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovenia, Austria, Greece and non-EU member Serbia, which applies EU laws in its energy sector, Oettinger said.

The 2,380-kilometre gas pipeline is to stretch from southern Russia to southern Italy and will also supply gas to Greece and Austria from 2015.

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_12/EU-to-renegotiate-South-Stream-gas-pipeline-with-Russia-1412/