The European Commission will seek to strengthen and improve energy ties with Ukraine, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday during a press conference after meeting with Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko.
"We are going to develop our partnership including in the field of energy," looking at a "progressive integration of (Ukraine's) system with the European system in gas and electricity," Barroso said.
Brussels will host a conference March 23 on how to improve and finance the development of Ukraine's transit gas network and its connections with Europe's, Barroso said.
Yushchenko reassured Barroso that his country will fully respect the agreement reached with Russia about gas transit to Europe, even though he isn't particularly pleased with it, Barroso said during the joint press conference.
A Ukraine-Russia dispute about the price to pay for natural gas disrupted supply to Europe for two weeks earlier this month, as OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) closed the taps to the neighboring country. Most of the E.U.'s gas imports from Russia flow through Ukraine.
"It is particularly important that we now move forward," Barroso said.