MILAN, October 17. /TASS/. Outgoing President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso told journalists on Friday the negotiations on the Ukrainian crisis settlement at the summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) were positive and successful. Russia, the European Union and Ukraine will continue contacts to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine, he told reporters.

He reiterated that key factors to normalize the situation are ceasefire, compliance with the Minsk agreements, control over the border, restarting of the political process and parliamentary elections in the entire country, including the southeast.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who hosted the meeting, said France called for imposing international control on the border between Ukraine and Russia.

“We support the proposal of the French president (Francois Hollande) to establish international control over Ukraine’s borders. This mission could involve Germany, France and Italy,” Renzi said.

The Italian prime minister said the meeting on Friday was a big step forward in the dialogue process.

Macrofinancial aid to Ukraine from the EU

EU is considering a certain expansion of macrofinancial aid to Ukraine, and that aid is to be provided under certain conditions, Barroso said. Thus, he refuted earlier reports of EU considering an allocation of €2 billion in short-term loans.

He admitted, however, that Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko has raised the problem of an expansion of economic aid to his country at the summit.

New round of talks on Ukraine gas issue

Barroso also said experts representing Russia, Ukraine and the EU will have meetings on Friday to prepare an important tripartite intergovernmental talks on gas, due next week in Brussels.

The European Commission’s representative told TASS the gas talks between Russia’s Minister of Energy Alexander Novak, Ukraine’s Minister of Energy Yuri Prodan and Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger jointly with managers of Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz would take place in Brussels on October 21. The meeting participants will discuss a temporary plan for supplies of gas to Ukraine and stable transit through Ukraine of gas to Europe in the winter period.