The Energy Community Secretariat, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Ukrainian Energy Exchange (UEEX) on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding to reform Ukraine’s gas sector in accordance with European legislation.

"The purpose of the memorandum is to support the restructuring gas sector of Ukraine in accordance with EU legislation to ensure competition and benefit Ukrainian consumers and the economy as a whole," the EU Secretariat mentioned on his site on Thursday. According to the report, the memorandum provides a joint framework and terms of cooperation for the development of natural gas trade at UEEX.

The parties agreed to agree on concrete actions to achieve the goal at the first meeting of the memorandum framework, scheduled for September this year.

As reported earlier, in late May the EBRD and the Energy Community confirmed their readiness to support Ukraine with the gas exchange and noted the significant progress made by the UEEX in creating a well-functioning gas exchange.

The representatives of the EBRD and EU note that during this time the situation with the development of the gas market in Ukraine has changed, UEEX has demonstrated significant progress and declares its technical readiness to trade in short-term standardized products. In their combined efforts, the EBRD and the EU refer to support for the launch of the spot/balancing market, as well as trading and clearing programs, central counterparty and market surveillance as the main aspect.

Source:Interfax-Ukraine