European Commission agrees to Ukraine’s emergency accession to EU energy system

The European Commission and the European Network of Transmission System Operators have agreed to begin the process of Ukraine's emergency accession to the EU's single energy grid and expect the process to take several weeks.

This was stated at a press conference in Brussels by EU Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson, quoted by Interfax-Ukraine.

This statement was made by the representative of the European Commission after the meeting of the EU Energy Council. "Our long-term priority with the Ukrainian side is to synchronize the Ukrainian energy system with the European one instead of the Russian one," she explained.

Kadri Simson reminded that the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on the day when Ukraine began testing the power system in isolation, which is the first step in preparing for future synchronization with the EU.

"I spoke with Herman Halushchenko (Minister of Energy of Ukraine) and he informed me that under the current conditions, they will not rejoin the Russian energy system. Ukraine is asking for extremely urgent synchronization with the European energy system. This is a technical challenge," she said.

However, according to her, Ukraine's technical readiness for this step is high and European operators have agreed to join Ukraine on exceptional terms.

"I met with ENTSO-E this morning, they think it's technically possible. When it comes to time, it's not a matter of hours, it's a matter of days, most likely a few weeks," she added.