EU-Ukraine-Russia talks agree on the terms of a binding protocol to secure gas supplies for the coming winter
Brussels, 25 September 2015
After several
rounds of trilateral and bilateral negotiations over the last months, at
today's meeting chaired by Vice-President for Energy Union Mr
Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission, the Russian Federation and
Ukraine have agreed on the terms of gas deliveries to Ukraine for the upcoming
winter period from the 1st of October until the end of March
2016. They have initialised the binding protocol and
submitted it to the respective governments for confirmation.
Vice-President Šefčovič
said: "The agreement on the terms of the new Winter Package is a crucial
step towards ensuring that Ukraine has sufficient gas supplies in the coming
winter and that there is no threat to the continued reliable gas transit from
Russia to the EU. The initialising demonstrates that
both parties live up to their roles as reliable partners in the gas business. I
am confident that the agreement will be soon confirmed and smoothly implemented
for the benefit of all parties concerned."
According to the initialled
protocol, Ukrainian side commits to securing natural gas transit through
its territory to the EU, including via injecting 2 bcm
of natural gas into underground storage still in October 2015.
The Russian Government commits to lowering
the gas price to Ukraine, by means of decreasing the export duty, to a
competitive level comparable to the neighbouring EU
countries both in the 4th quarter
2015 and in the 1st quarter
2016.
The European Commission continues its
efforts towards organising, through European and
international financial institutions, the necessary financing for gas purchases
by Ukraine during the winter period, as part of which at least 500 Million US $
should be available by the end of this year.
European Commission