The Secretary General reiterated the proposal which he had first outlined at the second meeting of the Contact Group on 13 March 2014. His proposal was that having learned the lessons from the previous crises in 2006 and 2009, a system for collecting relevant data on the physical flow in gas, oil and electricity be put in place by the Energy Charter Secretariat. This would benefit the Contact Group discussions and build confidence among the parties concerned.
It was agreed that the Contact Group would convene again when the representatives of the Russian Federation and Ukraine had received instructions from their respective capitals on the provisions of the necessary data, or on any other alternative proposal which might be addressed in the format of the Contact Group.
Meanwhile work would continue within the Energy Charter Trade and Transit Group at its meeting on 29 April 2014 on the development of an early warning mechanism suitable to the needs of the broader constituency of the Energy Charter.