EU, Russia and Ukraine to hold gas talks early Sept: official

PanARMENIAN.Net - EU, Russia and Ukraine will gather for three-party gas talks in early September, the European Commission vice-president in charge of energy, Gunther Oettinger, said in Minsk Tuesday, Aug 26, according to RIA Novosti.

The EU official said that “everyone” is ready to meet in “the first ten days of September.”

The official said he met with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak earlier in the day on the sidelines of the Customs Union-Ukraine-EU meeting in the Belarusian capital to discuss preparations for their Friday meeting in Moscow.

The three-party consultations between Russia, the European Union and Ukraine continued from mid-April to June, but yielded no significant results. Kiev insisted on a sharp reduction in the gas price, refusing otherwise to pay its debt that had reached $4.5 billion at the moment. Russia later offered a discount, which however, failed to satisfy Kiev’s demands. After that the Russian side announced it would continue negotiation only after Kiev cleared its debt. On June 16, Gazprom introduced a prepayment system for gas deliveries to the country.

The European Commission has repeatedly called for the consultations to be resumed.

Earlier in the day, Novak announced the sides agreed to continue the three-party negotiations focused on gas issues.