The European Union and Ukraine will discuss the creation of a gas hub in Ukraine in September, Energy and Coal Industry Minister Edward Stavytsky has said.

"There is an agreement with European Commissioners [for Energy Guenther] Oettinger and [for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan] Fule to hold a meeting on this matter with the interested parties from the EU and Ukrainian companies. It will take place around September," he told journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday.

As reported, Ukraine plans to develop the Eastern European gas hub on the basis of its underground gas storage facilities. Earlier Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said that after the modernization of its gas transportation system, Ukraine could offer its underground storage facilities as a basis for a new gas spot market. He said that the storage facilities could operate under the principle of a gas exchange, becoming a spot market in the east of Europe.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov ordered Vice Premier Yuriy Boiko to draw up a concept on the development and modernization of the Ukrainian GTS, underground gas storage facilities and to present it before the Ukraine-EU Summit in Vilnius.