Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that the European Commission is not helping to solve the problem of oil and gas transit through Ukraine, but that the country's leadership is working on it and wants this route to continue to be used as the main one.
This was stated by Robert Fizzo in a comment on "Saturday dialogues", FOCUS reported.
"Now I don't want to get into an argument with anyone, but I agree with the words of the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs (Peter Szijjártó) that the European Commission is not committed and left the case to us to solve it individually with Ukraine and Russia, Azerbaijan, in order to get gas and oil, I have recently been in contact with the Ukrainian prime minister, with the Azerbaijani leadership", commented Fico.
The leadership of Slovakia, he added, is also in communication with companies that supply oil and gas.
"We will do everything to ensure that the Ukrainian route will continue to be used as the main oil and gas transit route for Slovakia," Fico added.
According to Fico, Slovak companies could extract gas from alternative sources, but this would require higher transport costs, as the transit would go through several countries and on a longer route.
Earlier, the head of the Slovak Gas and Oil Union Richard Kvasnovski said that it is most profitable for Slovakia to receive gas through Ukraine and that using other routes will be more expensive.
According to him, Slovak companies could extract gas from alternative sources, but this would require higher transport costs, as the transit would go through several countries and on a longer route.