KYIV, April 29 – Parliament voted on Thursday to approve Herman Halushchenko as Ukraine’s next energy minister, ending a period of 13 months when the key sector had been supervised by a caretaker minister.

Before the appointment, Halushchenko was vice-president of Energoatom, the state nuclear power generator, indicating the government may be now in favor of expanding this part of the energy sector.

The appointment comes a day after a controversial reshuffle at the national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny with Yuriy Vitrenko replacing Andriy Kobolev as the head of the company. Kobolev indicated Thursday that he will legally challenge the reshuffle.

Kobolyev's sacking prompted a statement from the ambassadors from the Group of Seven nations.

"Effective management & governance of SOEs in Ukraine, free from political interference, is crucial to Ukraine's competitiveness, prosperity, & Ukraine fulfilling its international commitments," it said on Twitter.

The U.S. State Department's spokesman Ned Price said integrity and transparency in making such appointments was "key to maintaining confidence in Ukraine's commitment to reform."

Vitrenko, who is generally regarded as a reform-minded energy sector executive, was the acting energy minister for the past four months, but he had failed to secure majority of lawmakers needed for the approval.

However, Halushchenko received an overwhelming support as 305 lawmakers in the 450-seat Parliament had voted to approve the nomination.

This is a rare show of unity among lawmakers, potentially signaling that different oligarchic groups that control a number of seats in Parliament see him as no threat to their near monopolistic energy sector dominance.

One of Halushchenko’s biggest challenges will be to make sure Ukraine’s energy policy is in line with demands from the International Monetary Fund as the government seeks to resume $5 billion loan from the Washington-based lender.

One of the IMF’s biggest criticism so far was the government’s decision earlier this year to reduce by 30% prices of natural gas on domestic market that undermines the market-based price setting principles.

Addressing lawmakers on Thursday, Halushchenko said the prices do not need to necessarily increase to reflect the market, adding that there was a way to keep natural gas and electricity prices low for households.

“Electricity and gas tariffs should not be increased, but ways should be sought how to reduce them for vulnerable groups of the population,” Halushchenko said. “In fact, there are opportunities and resources for this, and it is possible to do this using market methods, not administrative ones. These are the opportunities that exist within the markets."

Halushchenko also said that Ukraine should continue building an international coalition to defeat Russia’s natural gas pipeline to Germany, Nord Stream 2, which threatens to bypass the Ukrainian gas pipeline.

"External threats to energy security require extraordinary efforts of diplomacy in countering Nord Stream-2, integration of Ukrainian gas and electricity markets into the EU, diversification of energy supplies," Halushchenko said.

Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and some other Eastern European countries have earlier this year called on U.S. President Joe Biden to prevent the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project. (tl/ez)