The European Union has said it won't mediate in the commercial dispute between Russia and Ukraine, but the Commission on January 7 decided to step up to the plate and make sure that gas supplies are resumed to the 27-nation bloc. “We have been accepted to send observers to see that the flows of gas are correct,” Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, the spokesman for EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, told New Europe telephonically from Brussels on January 7. “So we didn’t want to get involved in this bilateral issue. Certainly we are not going to mediate, but if sending observers allows the gas to get back to the European Union, we’re going to do whatever we have to do. We’re thinking of you and the cold in Greece," he mused. Germany, Italy, Austria, Greece, Turkey and most of the Balkan nations have been among the hardest hit by the drop in Russian gas, which has coincided with one of the coldest winters in decades, heightening fears of possible shortages over the coming days or weeks.

Tarradellas Espuny said that January 8 will be a “key day” with Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubyna, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, Piebalgs and Czech Republic's Minister of Commerce Martin Riman meeting in Brussels. “Things are moving. Tomorrow there is going to be this high level meeting. There is going to be Miller, Dubyna, Piebalgs together with the minister of Czech Presidency Riman and they are going to agree on sending out this observation mission to Ukraine,” he said.

He also reminded that the EU coordination group for gas issues will hold a meeting attended by the Russian and Ukrainian representatives on January 9, “which is going to be very important as well.”

Tarradellas Espuny said that the European Commission sent a fact-finding mission to Kiev on January 5 where they met with representatives of Naftogaz and they went to Berlin on January 6 where they discussed the dispute with Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Alexander Medvedev.

As Russia and Ukraine traded accusations and blame, the EU energy spokesman told New Europe that the Commission is not picking sides. “Both are to be accused. Both have obligations and the solutions are not fixed,” he said emphatically. “It is unacceptable, completely unacceptable, and we are not going to allow that to happen again,” he said.

However, the EU has virtually no short-term alternatives to Russian gas, which represents about a quarter of its total needs, and which mostly reaches the bloc through Ukrainian pipelines. But Tarradellas Espuny explained that the problem is that the commercial issue between Moscow and Kiev was not resolved. “If they reach an agreement that is permanent -- it is not every year that they have to negotiate -- the situation will improve very much and then we can consider them to be again more or less reliable suppliers.”

Meanwhile, Chris Weafer, chief strategist at Moscow’s UralSib bank, said that the EU undoubtedly has had to get involved. “This coming weekend is seen as an unofficial deadline, beyond which the issues, and risks, become much more serious for all sides."