Brussels, 06/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has proposed hosting a new trilateral meeting at ministerial level on Wednesday 11 June in order to try and settle the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute.
Another meeting between European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger and the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers, Alexander Novak and Yuriy Prodan respectively, “could be held in Brussels on 11 June”, a spokesperson for Oettinger said on Friday 6 June. “We have proposed this date and this place and we are awaiting a reply from our partners. It is in everyone's interest to have another trilateral as quickly as possible”, the spokesperon said.
The Commission hopes that the Russian and Ukrainian gas companies, Gazprom and Naftogaz, will resume their negotiations this weekend in order to bring forward concrete proposals at the tripartite meeting. After the last Russia-Ukraine-EU trilateral meeting on 2 June, Gazprom and Naftogaz agreed to study a plan enabling Ukraine to pay off its gas debt and secure its supplies of Russian gas until June 2015 (see EUROPE 11093). Talks between the two companies were broken off on Thursday, after two days of discussions on 3-4 June. (EH)