On Tuesday 30 August European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, who is in charge of the Energy Union, announced that he would be going to Kiev on Friday 2 September to discuss reforms in Ukraine's energy sector, and to lay the foundations for trilateral talks with Russia with a view to securing the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine and transiting this to the EU without any disruption this winter.
"Despite a very difficult situation, especially in east Ukraine, the transit route [of Russian gas] through Ukraine has been working well. We consider it a priority that this route is fully operational this winter as well", Sefcovic told journalists on Tuesday.
In order to secure the transit of Russian gas to the EU through Ukraine in a very cold winter, the Commission would like to see Ukraine bring its underground gas reserves to 16 billion cubic metres. This currently stands at 12 billion cubic metres, and Kiev would like to bring it to 14.5 billion cubic metres.
Sefcovic announced that he would discuss the issue with those responsible in Ukraine, including Ukraine's prime minister, Volodymyr Groïsman, and energy minster, Ihor Nasalyk.
Sefcovic also said that Kiev was in favour of holding trilateral talks on gas with Russia, but that Moscow still had to respond to Kiev's proposal. Sefcovic hoped to be able to visit Moscow some time in September.
Involved in a recurrent gas dispute that is harmful to the EU's security of Russian gas supply, Russia and Ukraine agreed, under EU mediation at the end of September 2015, on a memorandum of understanding that was valid until March 2016 for the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine for the winter of 2015-16. At the end of November 2015, however, Ukraine stopped all purchasing of Russian gas, and has since mainly been supplied by Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)