Arseniy Yatsenyuk: "Nord stream-2" is a political project. We ask the European Commission to support the EU and Ukraine in making the gas sector of Europe more durable and less dependent on the Russian Federation

"Nord stream-2" is an entirely political project. We ask the European Commission to support the European Union and Ukraine in making the gas sector of Europe more durable, more efficient and less dependent on the Russian Federation", said the Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Tuesday, March 1, at the meeting with the Vice-President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič.

"We need to cooperate further to should continue to cooperate to make the EU energy sector much more reliable, stronger and independent," said the Head of Government of Ukraine.

Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized that the Ukrainian Government appreciates the cooperation with the European Commission: "This winter is an outstanding period in Ukrainian history. This is the first winter when we didn't purchase a single cubic meter of natural gas from the Russian Federation. And I do believe that this is the result of our joint cooperation".

He stressed that Ukraine had become much more independent in energy sector, at the same time, further steps are needed to be undertaken to improve the Ukrainian gas and electricity sector: "We expect that the Cabinet is to pass a draft bill on new electricity regulations. This bill is entirely to meet all the EU standards and the EU regulations."

"The bill is expected by the Ukrainian business community and this is the way how to bring investors into the Ukrainian electricity sector, to make it more competitive," added the Head of Ukrainian Government.

Maroš Šefčovič stressed that the Government had already done a lot, in particular, to ensure changes in the gas sector.

He stressed the importance of discussing cooperation in other sectors: "We believe that your push for reforms would bring very tangible results very quickly".