BRUSSELS, April 23. /ITAR-TASS/. EU Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger offered Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coalmining Yuriy Prodan to participate in a first tripartite meeting on gas issue, a source in the European Commission told ITAR-TASS on Wednesday.

Earlier, the press service confirmed the conceptual readiness of the European Commission to hold multilateral talks over the gas issue at the political level.

As ITAR-TASS reported earlier, the parliament-appointed Minister of Energy and Coalmining Yuriy Prodan stated on Wednesday that April 24, talks on the gas issue with participation of Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and the European Commission might take place in Bratislava. He said that the relevant initiative was earlier proposed by the Russian side.

“There is a proposal from the Russian side and from the European Commission to hold a four-party or three-party meeting. Today, the issue of the three ministers’ meeting in Bratislava is considered, — of the Slovakian, Russian ministers and me, as well as the European commissioner,” Yuriy Prodan informed.