EU-leiders bespreken mogelijke gascrisis (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders will at an upcoming summit talk about Russian proposals to help Ukraine pay for gas, but funds are unlikely to come forward, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso i has said.

The commission chief on Friday morning (29 May) had a "long" phone call with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin i in which the Russian said that Ukraine might default on gas payments, risking a fresh EU supply crisis.

Russia in January cut off gas to Ukraine in a row over prices and debts, causing massive outages in eastern EU states, which get almost all of their gas from Russia via Ukraine.

Mr Putin's warning comes after similar rumbles from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev i last week and a pledge on Thursday by Italy's Silvio Berlusconi to raise the issue at the EU leaders' meeting in Brussels on 18 June.

"It's difficult with our budget now if not impossible to have some support from the community budget to Ukraine," Mr Barroso said, on the margins of a press conference with the European Investment Bank.

"I've promised Prime Minister Putin I will raise the issue at the meeting of EU heads of state and government to see what we can do in a situation that is of course mainly a problem between Russia and Ukraine."

The commission's energy spokesman, Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, earlier on Friday said Ukraine has not formally applied for any EU help.

EU monitors put in place at gas metering stations in Russia and Ukraine to investigate Russian claims that Ukraine was "stealing" EU-bound gas went home in March but could be redeployed at any time, he added.

The spokesman played down the gravity of the situation, noting that a gas outage in summer would be less serious than the January crisis, when Europe was hit by freezing weather.

"At this time of the year it's maybe not as critical as we're not in the middle of winter," Mr Espuny said.

Heavier EU involvement in the Ukraine gas business is a controversial prospect.

Ukraine fears that Russia is trying to paint it as an unreliable EU energy partner in order to boost political support for new Russian pipelines bypassing its transit system. Kiev is also concerned that international involvement in its gas trade could be used by Russian companies to grab a stake in its pipelines.

Russia earlier this year slated the EU for planning to invest in Ukraine's pipelines without consulting it first. The EU investment scheme foresees shifting pipeline ownership away from Ukraine's indebted Naftogaz firm to a new company, reducing Russia's leverage over Naftogaz assets.