1. Following-up the winter package agreement and in the light of the Minsk declaration, consultations between the European Commission, the Russian Federation and Ukraine were held in Brussels on 20 March.

2. The Parties confirmed that the winter package was being implemented, allowing for the necessary gas flows securing both the domestic consumption in Ukraine and undisrupted transit to the EU.

3. The Parties agreed that preparations for the supply for the next winter have to start now. In this context the parties concluded the following:

a) The Russian Federation upon request will consider granting a discount to the price of natural gas as per contract N-KP by amount of export duty decrease provided by the Government of the Russian Federation on a quarterly basis;

b) Ukraine will consider to purchase the required amount of gas necessary for the storage filling. Ukraine ensures to continue reliable gas transit to the EU;

c) The European Commission will consider to undertake its best efforts to help Ukraine finding the adequate financial support to purchase gas.

4. Building on these conclusions the Parties agreed that a group of experts should work on the details of the aforementioned points, and present a draft proposal for the next trilateral.