BERLIN, September 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Trilateral gas consultations between the European Union, Russia and Ukraine will be held in Berlin on Friday.

Taking part in the consultations will be EU’s outgoing energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuri Prodan. The focus will be made on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine and issues of energy security, a spokesman for the Berlin office of the European Union told ITAR-TASS. The key task of the talks is to ensure uninterrupted gas supplies both to Ukraine and the European Union in the coming winter.

The talks will end with a news conference, which is preliminarily planned for 14:00 local time (12:00 UTC). It is not yet ruled out however that this time might be changed — it will depend on how the talks proceed, the spokesman noted.

Initially, the trilateral meeting on gas matters was to be held in Berlin on September 20 but was postponed for a later date.

Earlier, on September 23, Oettinger said after an Energy Community's session in Kiev that the European energy system had been stress tested to see what was to be done in case of a hypothetical suspension of gas supplies from Russia. The stress tests, involving Ukraine, according to the E.U. energy commissioner, were a success.

However he said the European Union saw it as its priority task to avoid worst scenarios. In his words, Russia’s gas sector should not be subjected to EU sanctions against Moscow over the Ukrainian crisis. The European Union, according to Oettinger, expected to reach a compromise with Russia and sought to get Russian gas supplies in full amount and on a market price.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel too said wanted the gas price dispute between Russia and Ukraine be resolved as quickly as possible. She said the gas dispute required urgent resolution now that winter was approaching.