European Commission confirms date and place of trilateral gas talks

The European Commission has confirmed that the talks between the European Commission, Ukraine and Russia on the transit of Russian gas to European consumers across the territory of Ukraine will take place on Thursday, September 19.

“As you know, the current gas transit contract expires at the end of this year. So, trilateral talks chaired by Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič with the participation of Ukraine and Russia will take place in Brussels on Thursday, September 19. There will be a press briefing in the afternoon, so we should wait for the renewal of the talks [to get further information],” European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said at a press briefing in Brussels, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

She did not comment on some Russian media reports which say that Ukraine, which adopted European gas market rules, would be allegedly obliged to continue transit of Russian gas to Europe even without a valid agreement with Gazprom.

“We have to wait for the results of the negotiations. Transit, unbundling, network interconnection, pricing - the participants intend to discuss all these issues,” the European Commission spokeswoman said.

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