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Brussels, January 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) - The head of a delegation of the European Parliament for cooperation with Ukraine, Adrian Severin, has said that the situation with gas supplies to the European Union states is a political crisis, and the European Union is a political participant.

"This is not a man-made or natural crisis. This is a political crisis, which has only political consequences and political goals. This is not a bilateral discussion. This is at least a trilateral discussion, where the European Union acts not only as affected party, but also as a political participant," he said, speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday.

Severin said that European MPs would like to hear representatives of Ukraine and Russia to understand whether they are ready to respect the interests of the European Union.

"We'll ask to explain how they'll take into account our interests when we speak about bilateral relations of the European Union with these states," he said.

Severin said that European MPs are not judges.

"We won't say who is right and who is wrong, but we will use all [of our] powers as EU representatives to ... give adequate guarantees to our citizens of their safety," he said.

He also said that MPs are to determine ways to settle the problem of gas supplies.