Brussels/Berlin - The European Union on Tuesday urged Russia and Ukraine to immediately restore gas supplies to the bloc, as an increasingly ugly dispute between the two hit energy provisions amid freezing temperatures in a growing number of its member states. "Without prior warning and in clear contradiction with the reassurances given by the highest Russian and Ukrainian authorities to the European Union, gas supplies to some EU member states have been substantially cut," a joint statement from the bloc's Czech presidency and the EU executive, the European Commission, said.
"This situation is completely unacceptable," the statement said.
EU officials "demand that gas supplies be restored immediately to the EU and that the two parties resume negotiations at once with a view to a definitive settlement of their bilateral commercial dispute."
The statement followed allegations from Kiev that Russian state- owned monopolist Gazprom had reduced its gas shipments through Ukraine to European consumers to just 72 million cubic meters, down from 260 million on Monday and an average of 300 million previously.
Joining in the fray was Polish President Lech Kaczynski in Warsaw, who accused the EU of being "exceedingly soft" towards Russia.
"It's a problem of exceedingly soft politics towards our Russian partner," he told Radio ZET on Tuesday when asked about the EU's stance on the gas conflict.
Kaczynski is slated to hold talks with his Czech counterpart Vaclav Klaus on Thursday, but declined to say if Klaus would take a hard stance. Kaczynski will also meet with Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko on January 14.
Polish gas monopoly PGNiG reported on Tuesday a fall of 7 million cubic metres in daily gas flowing from Ukraine. PGNiG said it was relying on supplies in its storage facilities and increased its delivery at the Belarus border.
Gazprom deliveries to Poland were also lowered by 5 per cent, head of the Energy Regulatory Office Marek Woszczyk said, but the cuts posed no threat with Polish reserves 85 per cent full.
Officials in Brussels said the cut had already affected supplies to Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, as well as to would-be EU members Macedonia and Turkey. The threat to natural gas supplies to Europe comes amid a plunge in winter temperatures across central Europe and Turkey to their lowest levels in decades.
"The situation has changed dramatically overnight," said Ferran Tarradellas, spokesman for the commission's top energy official, Andris Piebalgs.
Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic also reported sharp drops in gas supplies, while officials in Brussels said the cuts could soon hit Italy, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia.
"Our people will not go cold," said German Energy Minister Hilmi Guler after the country's key gas importer, E.ON Ruhrgas, reported Tuesday a "massive" fall in Russian supplies to Europe's biggest economy.
EU officials were due to meet Gazprom's deputy chairman, Alexander Medvedev, in Berlin later on Tuesday, a day after visiting Kiev.
The Czech government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency over the next six months, said Ukrainian officials had assured the bloc during Monday's talks that it would spare no effort in finding "an acceptable solution" to the dispute and in ensuring "regular and unrestricted supply of natural gas for the EU."
However, it noted that "different viewpoints" regarding legal and technical matters made agreement between Gazprom and Ukraine's state- run gas monopolist Naftogaz "difficult."
The EU's gas coordination group is to meet on Friday to assess the impact of the Ukrainian-Russian row on the bloc's energy requirements.
The meeting, to which Gazprom and Naftogaz representatives have also been invited, could see the start of discussions on whether to kickstart a "solidarity mechanism", whereby EU countries with solid reserves provide some of their gas to those most in need.
Bulgaria, meanwhile, has begun stepping up the pressure on Brussels for permission to re-start its old nuclear reactors, shut down in 2006 amid security concerns.
Bulgaria, which has been hard hit by the Russia-Ukraine dispute, was forced to shut down two 440-megawatt, Soviet-era reactors shortly before it joined the European Union, in 2007.
