The European Commission has included Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine in the European Gas Stress Test to see how Europe would cope in the worst-case scenario of restricted gas supplies, Vice President of the European Commission for Energy Gunther Oettinger said at a press conference in Brussels on Thursday.

Ukriane is an important partner-country today which aspires for tighter association with the European Union, he said. Oettinger said that the country acutely needs gas and that is a gas transiting country.

He said that the European Commission studied in details what could happen, for example, if Russia stops gas supplies, and what could happen if Ukraine does not fulfill its transit functions. This is the worse scenario we presented for the EU members and EU partners in the stress test, he said.

Oettinger said that in coming days he will go to Kyiv to hold consultations with Ukrainian partners and next week a trilateral meeting on gas between the EU, Russia and Ukraine will be held in Brussels.

The EU is to be ready to see no effect from the negotiations and the EU should know its possiblitiies of providing EU members with gas in winter, taking into account supplies from other sources, for example, Algeria and Norway.