BRUSSELS, May 7 -- The European Commission (EC) is developing its work on energy security as a support to the Ukrainian government, said EC President Jose Manuel Barroso Wednesday after the EU-Japan Summit.

"Energy security is one of the key issues for Ukraine right now," Barroso said, adding that European Union (EU) is "determined" to make sure that Ukraine has "all the support it needs".

A few days ago, the Ukraine and Slovakia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding on gas flow. Barroso said, "This was an important first step to diversify Ukraine's sources of gas supply and it can contribute to greater energy security in Eastern Europe and the EU as a whole."

According to the agreement signed on April 28, Slovakia will deliver gas to Ukraine from autumn this year, initially with a capacity of 3 billion cubic meters, which will be gradually increased to 8-9 billion cubic meters per year after some mechanical modifications.

Last week, European Commissioner for Energy, Gunther Oettinger held a first trilateral exchange of views with his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts dedicated to security of gas supply and transit from Russia via Ukraine.

Mentioning the trilateral meeting of the energy officials, Barroso said, wide concerned issues such as the outstanding debt of Ukraine, the gas price for supplies to Ukraine had been discussed, and methods to increase transparency and reliability of gas flows and gas storage as well as ways to ensure the modernization of the Ukrainian gas market and the gas transmission system are under negotiations.

Barroso said supporting help to Ukraine would be the main subject of the meeting with the Ukrainian Government, led by Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, in Brussels, on next Tuesday.