At a meeting on August 31 in Prague, EU top diplomats failed to reach an agreement on restricting visas to Russian citizens. So far, the EU has only decided to halt the visa-easing arrangement with Russia. Even so, because the meeting was informal, this decision is solely political in nature, Izvestia writes.
The freezing of the visa facilitation agreement will make it more difficult for Russians to obtain a Schengen visa. The fee will rise from 35 to 80 euro, and the processing time will be extended.
After submitting an application, it could take up to six months to receive a visa. According to Artur Muradyan, vice president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), this EU decision will mostly affect the residents of Russia’s trans-border regions rather than visitors.
"On the other hand, nothing out of the ordinary occurred at the ministerial meeting. The situation that the Baltic countries envisioned did not come to fruition. We hope that the EU members who have opposed the ban will be able to continue their free tourism policy. In particular, Spain, Italy, and Greece will continue to issue visas," he concluded.
In any case, the results of the informal meeting of the EU top diplomats cannot be interpreted as a practical solution to the visa issue. A final verdict is yet to come. So far, the bloc’s members are still divided into two camps: those who are looking for compromises on this issue, and those who completely reject them.
Kommersant: Hungary and Gazprom ink another gas supplies contract
Gazprom will supply an additional 353.8 mln cubic meters of gas to Hungary amid the pipeline shutdown in September and October. Additional volumes will go through the TurkStream gas pipeline. Analysts told Kommersant they believe that this measure will allow Hungary not only to prepare for a cold winter, but also to assist neighboring Austria and Slovakia in the event of interruptions in gas supplies via Ukraine.
Russia provides around 85% of the country's gas imports. Gazprom inked a contract with Hungary in 2021 to supply 3.5 bln cubic meters of gas per year through Bulgaria and Serbia, with an additional 1 bln cubic meters supplied through Austria. The contract was signed for a period of 15 years. Gazprom had upped deliveries to Hungary by 2.6 mln cubic meters per day in August.
Despite Russia's special operation in Ukraine, EU member Hungary maintains relations with Moscow and opposes sanctions on Russian oil and gas. "At a time, when the EU is filling storage facilities, 'vacuuming up’ the LNG market in preparation of a gas shortage, Hungary is the only country that will get greater volumes of gas, moreover, via the safe channel - TurkStream," Maria Belova from Vygon Consulting noted.
According to Sergey Kapitonov, specialist at the Center for Energy Transition and Skoltech's ESG, Hungary is strategically placed in the European energy grid. In the event of disruptions along the Ukrainian route during the winter - because gas via this pipeline also runs to Slovakia and Austria - Budapest may be able to assist its neighbors by supplying gas from underground storage facilities while still making good money.
Kommersant: EU tries to play mediator role in Azerbaijan-Armenia talks
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met in Brussels for the third time this year to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh. The situation on the ground had changed significantly: in particular, before this meeting transpired, Baku occupied three more settlements with Armenian families who remained.
Azerbaijan hopes that the new developments will continue and will lead to an agreement on a peace treaty in the coming months. However, this time the leaders only agreed to continue "substantive negotiations" on the topic and to meet again in November - once again in Brussels, rather than Moscow, which claims to be the key mediator.
These efforts did not go unnoticed in Moscow. "The activity of the EU in the South Caucasus is determined by geopolitical ambitions," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented.
According to Member of the National Assembly of Azerbaijan Rasim Musabekov, such rhetoric is connected to the general aggravation of relations between Moscow and the West. "The EU acts as a coordinator of sanctions pressure on Russia. On this issue, Brussels behaves not as a partner, but as a rival to Russia," he told Kommersant.
Farhad Mammadov, an Azerbaijani political scientist, believes the reason is more complicated. "Without a peace treaty, Moscow preserves its role as the exclusive mediator and participates in the debate of all issues with one side or the other, and if a peace treaty is signed, it may lose a whole layer of relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan," he told Kommersant.
Vedomosti: Eurozone inflation sets all-time record
Consumer inflation in 19 eurozone countries in August reached 9.1% year-on-year and set a record for the entire existence of the single European currency since January 1, 1999, according to Eurostat data. Meanwhile, experts interviewed by Vedomosti believe that the inflation rate in Europe is not even at its peak.
Similar to July, the key factor behind the rise in prices was costlier energy resources. Their contribution to inflation in August was 38.3% (somewhat lower than in July, which was 39.6%). The Baltic countries experienced the highest inflation in August, with prices rising by 25.2% in Estonia, 21.1% in Lithuania, and 20.8% in Latvia. In August, inflation in the eurozone's key economies of Germany and France was 8.8% and 6.5%, respectively.
The majority of analysts polled by Vedomosti believe that Eurozone inflation has not yet peaked and will accelerate in the coming months. The macroeconomic climate, geopolitical tensions, and the present spike in gas prices, according to BCS World of Investments expert Denis Buivolov, may worsen the situation. The delay in tightening monetary policy in the EU exacerbates the situation, the expert noted.
"The European Central Bank is now caught between two fires: fighting inflation on the one hand, and not driving the economy into a deep recession on the other," the expert said, adding that the European regulator is not alone in this position, but unlike the US Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank is not entitled to make a mistake.
Vedomosti: Gazprom reports decline in demand for gas in Europe
The actions of Western regulators led to a decline in gas demand in the EU in January-August 2022 by 29-30 bln cubic meters, according to Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller. He noted that gas buyers in Europe began to abandon traditional energy, as well as long-term contracts with fixed prices under decarbonization policy pressure. According to the top oil executive, this resulted in a deterioration of supply reliability and stability, as well as a price surge at gas hubs and trading floors.
Miller recalled that if these trends continue, the price of gas in the autumn-winter period of 2022-2023 may approach $4,000 per 1,000 cubic meters, according to the company's conservative forecast. The top executive emphasized that the Asian seasonal factor - the Asian market's competition with the European market for liquefied natural gas - is also exerting pressure on the pricing trend (LNG).
Experts believe that in order to reroute diminishing volumes of supplies from the EU to other directions, Gazprom must build new gas transportation capacity and generate local demand.
According to Deputy General Director of the National Energy Security Fund Alexei Grivach, the EU's gas demand is likely to worsen. He highlighted that the price increase for gas and other types of energy, caused by the activities of Western governments, is continuing and affecting other countries. The expert finds two major causes for this: systemic errors in EU energy policy that "shut off" investments in traditional energy, as well as the West's sanctions war with Russia, the key supplier of energy resources.
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