Removing one hurdle, the EU has certified the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, a Naftogaz spinoff company created this month. “The newly created operator of the gas transmission system of Ukraine is separated and configured to work in accordance with EU law,” Maroš Šefčovič, the lead EU negotiator on the gas transmission talks, tweeted Friday. In recent days, Ukraine’s new gas line operator signed an interconnection agreement with pipeline operators of Hungary, Moldova, Poland, and Romania. Now, it is talking with Slovakia’s Eustream and Russia’s Gazprom.