By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The European Commission, anxious to secure future energy supplies in an increasingly competitive world market, is to set out steps next week to broaden ties with eastern neighbours on key fuel transit routes. Proposals from the EU executive to the 25 member states on Nov. 29, will include a fund to co-finance energy and transport infrastructure, and the prospect of trade and visa concessions. "(The) Commission intends to propose... an ambitious package of measures to strengthen our European Neighbourhood Policy," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told a conference on energy in Brussels on Tuesday. "In this framework we will also propose the creation of an infrastructure fund designed to co-finance, in particular, energy and transport infrastructure investment in the neighbourhood policy region," she said. Ferrero-Waldner said the fund would "significantly contribute" to the EU's aim of ensuring secure energy supplies. The EU gets 50 percent of its energy from third countries -- much from Russia via Ukraine and Belarus. It has been looking to safeguard such supplies after being rattled by a brief cut in January triggered by a pricing dispute between Moscow and Kiev. Ukraine falls under the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), which offers closer ties with the EU in return for economic and political reform, but the EU has not ratified such a pact with Belarus due to human rights problems and has imposed sanctions. On Tuesday, Ferrero-Waldner held out the prospect of hefty EU aid for Belarus -- if the country pursued democratic reform which the bloc says is not currently being furthered by Moscow-backed President Alexander Lukashenko. Another ENP partner, Moldova, will become an energy transit state to the EU when Romania joins the bloc next year, while Georgia could become a key future route for Central Asian gas. EU-RUSSIA SUMMIT News of the planned incentives came before an EU-Russia summit on Friday and is unlikely to ease the mood, with Moscow already irritated by the EU's existing efforts to reach out to ex-Soviet Eastern European states. An EU source said Ferrero-Waldner's proposals would include setting up two funds worth a total of 1 billion euros ($1.28 billion). A Neighbourhood Investment Fund would be worth 700 million euros useable for a wide range of projects, of which energy and transport infrastructure would be one area. It is hoped EU states would match the amount allowing the total to be leveraged up to seven billion euros of soft loans, the source said. An additional 300 million euros would go to a facility supporting reform efforts. Eastern European countries could also be offered favourable trade terms similar to those already enjoyed by Mediterranean states and the prospect of easier visas for the European Union. The Commission hopes that Germany would use the proposals as a basis for discussions on the issue during its EU presidency in the six months from January next year. (Additional reporting by Mark John)
