European Commission gives Kyiv, Moscow concrete gas transit proposals

The European Commission has given Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom concrete proposals on the parameters of a future natural gas transit contract that should replace the current contract that expires at the end of 2019.

Vice-President of the European Commission for the Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said this at a press conference after trilateral gas consultations in Brussels on Monday, January 21, an Ukrinform correspondent said.

"At the end of today's meeting, I tabled a proposal for both parties to take it home and to reflect upon it. The proposal covers three main parameters of the future transit agreement, namely duration, volumes and tariffs, but it also covers other important parameters such as investment and maintenance of the gas system, legal and technical requirements. Without going into the details now, for the sake of a successful outcome, I am convinced that this is a fair proposal based on our thorough analysis and quite many hours of expert discussions and talks," Sefcovic said.

He also announced plans to convene the next ministerial meeting in May this year to discuss these issues.

"We offered both parties to continue the discussion at the level of senior experts," Sefcovic added.

According to him, the issue of security of gas supply this winter was also discussed at the current meeting.