Ukraine has to decide itself how to run its pipelines - European Commission

BRUSSELS. March 10 (Interfax) - It is up to Kiev to decide how to use Ukrainian pipelines, the European Commission (EC) said.

"As regards using any Ukrainian infrastructure, it is up to Ukraine to decide how they want to run their pipeline system," EC spokesperson Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said at a press briefing in Brussels on Monday.

She was asked to comment on what would follow the March 6 EU summit's calls for the EC, Slovakia and Ukraine to work more actively to address the gas transit issue.

"The European Council calls on the [European] Commission, Slovakia and Ukraine to intensify efforts towards finding workable solutions to the gas transit issue, while taking into consideration the concerns raised by Slovakia," the summit's final document said.

"We are open to solutions that are in line with our REPowerEU objective of phasing out Russian energy imports," Itkonen said.

Based on this approach, the EC is in touch with its member states concerned, especially Slovakia and Hungary, she said.

"There have been no security supplies concerns," she said, noting that the contract on Ukrainian transit of Russian gas expired at the end of last year. The EC has been "in close regular contact with Slovakia, Hungary and Ukraine on this issue," and it is "taking into consideration all the concerns that Slovakia and Hungary have brought forward," Itkonen said.

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