On Monday, Gazprom said the project to build the new South Stream link to the EU, bypassing Ukraine, was scrapped and cited EU regulatory objections.

"The Commission has hosted several meetings that aimed at finding a solution to this project that would fully comply with the EU legislation," Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic said in a statement.

The next meeting is planned for Dec. 9 and will go ahead, he said, adding security of supply was a top priority in an "ever changing energy landscape".

Asked to confirm whether or not the South Stream project was really dead, a Commission spokeswoman said she could not do so because she had not had the information from Russia.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni expressed doubt on the issue at a news conference in Brussels.

"On South Stream, the next few days will tell us if the announcements by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin yesterday will turn out to be definitive or not," he said.

In announcing it was abandoning the project, Russia on Monday said it was still diversifying its export routes by shipping gas through Turkey.

(Reporting by Barbara Lewis and Francesco Guarascio; editing by Susan Thomas)

Stocks treated in this article : EDF, Eni SpA, BASF SE, Gazprom OAO