European Union natural gas experts Thursday urged the bloc's 27 national governments to fill up their storage facilities ahead of winter to protect themselves against another disruption to gas supplies shipped from Russia through Ukraine.
The experts held an emergency meeting in Brussels as tensions between Russia and Ukraine over gas shipments to the E.U. flare up again. Ukraine, its economy hammered by the economic crisis, has said it needs help paying its gas bill to Russia, leading to worries in the E.U. that gas shipments could be disrupted again.
The group, which is chaired by the European Commission, "recommended the member states to be better prepared for the coming winter period and to fill their gas storages from all possible available sources," according to a statement.