Ukraine has a huge potential to exploit its natural gas reserves, but this potential has not been capitalized so far due to lack of reforms, Vladimir Milov, a former deputy of the Russian energy minister, said in a debate at the Popular European Party (PPE) meeting in the European Parliament.

According to Milov, in the five years since the Maidan Revolution, Kiev has not adopted the expected reforms, which negatively influences the Ukrainian economy, especially the energy sector, according to Agerpres. Recently, in a conference in Brussels, officials from the Ukrainian group Naftogaz said that, at least in part, the delay in implementation of the unbundling commitments to EU, in order to separate activities, comes as the result of Gazprom’s opposition; according to Yuriy Vitrenko, the executive director of the Naftogaz group, the Russian company do not allow Ukraine to change the transit contract for the Russian gas through the Ukrainian territory in order to change the name of the Ukrainian counterpart.

The former Russian official also referred to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, reaffirming that Moscow supports this energy project.

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At the beginning of February, EU Member States agreed on a common position on the review of gas transport regulations, which specifically targets the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project, on the basis of a compromise solution advanced by France and Germany.