The European Union and the United States have urged Ukraine to review the updated draft Energy Strategy of Ukraine for the period of up to 2030, saying the document is based on unrealistic projections of the development of the national economy, is not consistent with other legislation, and does not account for all of the international obligations of the state.
A copy of a joint letter by the head of the EU delegation to Ukraine, Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira, Deputy Chief of the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Ukraine Eric Schultz and World Bank Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Qimiao Fan, who address Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko, has been published by the Expert weekly.
The authors of the letter say that the minister should pay attention to the fact that the projected GDP growth forecast (5% per year for the base-case scenario and 6.4% for the best-case scenario), which has been used for all calculations of an increase in power generation and consumption, does not correspond either to the statistics for previous years or to the International Monetary Fund’s medium-term forecasts (3.5%), or those of the World Bank (4%).
In addition, the draft of the updated energy strategy is not consistent with the State Environmental Policy Strategy, which is now classified as an act of law, nor with the State Target Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy and Alternative Fuel Program for 2010-2015, which was approved by the government in 2010.
The EU and U.S. experts stress that the updated energy strategy should foresee the implementation of all the international obligations undertaken by Ukraine as part of the initialing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU in 2012, and its joining the European Energy Community in 2011. The fulfillment of such commitments should be specified and provided in detail, and the reform of the energy sector and the gas industry, which is stipulated in the strategy, should be in full compliance with Ukraine’s international obligations.
