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EC’s gas proposals best basis for reaching agreement with Ukraine - Miller

Gazprom CEO said considerable progress had been reached at the trilateral meeting in Berlin on September 26

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. The European Commission’s proposals on how to solve the “gas issue” provide the best opportunity for reaching an agreement with Ukraine, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Wednesday.

He said considerable progress had been reached at the trilateral meeting in Berlin on September 26, which was attended by representatives of the European Commission, Ukraine and Russia.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said earlier in the day that the European Commission was hoping for quick and decisive progress at the trilateral gas talks and wrote so in his reply to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s letter.

He said that the resumption of gas supplies to Ukraine and the fulfillment of obligations to the European Commission was the key.

Tripartite consultations began on May 2 and ended on June 16 with no result achieved. After that Gazprom and Naftogaz of Ukraine filed lawsuits against each other at the Stockholm arbitration court.

Ukraine is hoping to get the Stockholm arbitration court ruling on its gas dispute with Russia by the end of the current year, Justice Minister Pavel Petrenko said.

The lawsuits filed by Naftogaz of Ukraine and Russia’s Gazprom have been combined into one case. Kiev is demanding that “a fair and market” price be set for Russian gas and that Gazprom be obligated to return $6 billion “overpaid” by Kiev for the gas supplied by Russia since 2010.

Gazprom sued Naftogaz of Ukraine for its failure to pay a debt of 4.5 billion U.S. dollars for the gas that was delivered but not paid for.