AFP: EU soul-searching over Russian gas vulnerability

Europe's dependency on Russian gas will be at the heart of summit talks starting Thursday as EU leaders weigh up action to match their outrage over Moscow's annexation of Crimea.

Over a quarter of the gas used by the European Union comes from Russia and nearly a third of that is piped through Ukraine, making households and industry dependant on Russian goodwill and Ukrainian infrastructure.

For a handful of EU countries -- Finland, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria and the Baltic states -- Russia's state-controlled gas colossus Gazprom is virtually the sole provider.

If the EU and Russia were to escalate tit-for-tat sanctions leading all the way to gas supply disruptions, the EU would have a lot to lose -- a point not lost on many European leaders.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico for instance warned as he headed to the summit that any energy-related embargo "would be lethal to the Slovak economy."  MORE