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Moldova declares energy emergency over Gazprom transit
Summary
A retrospective on the Moldovan parliament's vote of 13 December 2024, taken as the Ukrainian transit contract for Russian gas was not renewed.
What does a country do when the gas route it relies on is about to close? On 13 December 2024, the Parliament of Moldova gave its answer: it voted to declare a 60-day national state of emergency, to begin on 16 December.
According to the report of the vote, the reason was that Ukraine was not renewing its transit contract with Gazprom to deliver Russian gas to Moldova. The emergency declaration was Chisinau's response to that approaching gap, and it set a clear window of two months from its start date.
A neighbour in the war's shadow
Moldova had been drawn into the consequences of the Russo-Ukrainian war since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As later described, it accepted Ukrainian refugees, opened a bank account for donations and unofficially imposed sanctions on Russia. The December vote showed another side of that proximity: the war next door also shaped how Moldova's energy supplies reached it.
Support elsewhere
Two days earlier, on 11 December 2024, the Parliament of Canada had approved the allocation of CA$764 million (US$587 million) in military aid to Ukraine. The two decisions were separate, taken in different capitals and for different purposes. Together they showed how the war was drawing in governments far from the front line as well as those on Ukraine's border.
For Moldova, the vote on 13 December 2024 meant the country entered the days before 16 December with an emergency framework approved by lawmakers.
