A session of talks between Russia and Ukraine, under the mediation of the EU, for an agreement on supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine over winter 2016/2017, has been scheduled to be held in Brussels on Friday 9 December, a Community source close to the dossier told EUROPE on Tuesday 6 December, adding that this meeting would be confirmed this Wednesday. The session will consist of two bilateral meetings between the EU and Russia and the EU and Ukraine ahead of a trilateral meeting, the source told EUROPE.
The Russian energy minister, Alexander Novak, agreed to the proposal of the vice-president of the Commission with responsibility for the Energy Union, Maroš Šefčovič, during the latter's visit to Moscow on 25 November, to carry out trilateral negotiations , adding that Russia was planning to sell between 1.5 and 4 billion m³ of gas to Ukraine. Šefčovič announced that the Commission was finalising its work with the World Bank to grant Ukraine a loan of $500 million to buy Russian gas.
Given their recurrent gas dispute, that could harm the EU's security of supplies of Russian gas, Russia and Ukraine agreed at the end of September 2015, under the mediation of the EU, on a memorandum of understanding, valid until the end of March 2016, for supplies of Russian gas to Ukraine for winter 2015/2016. However, at the end of november 2015, Ukraine halted all purchases from Russia and has since then bought its supplies chiefly from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)