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BRUSSELS: Italy's Federica Mogherini pledged as European Union foreign policy chief that the EU would play a stronger role in tackling world crises. Her resolve is about to be tested as the bloc debates whether it is time to mend its relationship with Russia.

A year after Ukraine's former President Viktor Yanukovich backed out of an EU trade deal and lit the ongoing crisis, the EU's new top diplomat must steer senior officials to a decision whether to keep up strong pressure on Moscow or "re-engage."

Mogherini travels to Kiev on Tuesday for talks with President Petro Poroshenko, then attends Thursday's EU summit - new European Council President Donald Tusk's first - where Ukraine will be high on the agenda. Foreign ministers then formally discuss the EU's relationship with Russia in January, though behind-the-scenes talks have already started.

Ex-communist EU states worried about Russia initially blocked Mogherini's nomination for the EU role because she was foreign minister for Italy, which expressed reluctance to impose sanctions. She was accepted only when the top job went to Tusk, the former Polish prime minister who takes a much tougher line.

Since then Mogherini has won mainly praise from EU governments but is still under scrutiny. Moscow's annexation of Crimea and support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine has driven relations with the EU to their lowest ebb since the Cold War and led the EU to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

With Moscow showing no sign of reversing its decisions, Mogherini must tread a fine line between EU governments such as the Baltics, Poland and Britain which back tough sanctions on Russia and those such as Italy, Cyprus, Greece and Bulgaria that are sceptical about them.

Speaking after chairing her first EU foreign ministers' meeting last month, Mogherini said the talks focused on "how to re-engage in a dialogue - given that Russia is for sure part of the problem but it is also for sure part of ... the possible solution to the crisis."

Mogherini, who says she does not see sanctions as an end in themselves, is ready for personal diplomacy to try to end the Ukraine conflict and restart dialogue with Russia.

She has said she is prepared to travel to Moscow if conditions are right for progress in the matter: Diplomats suggest that could happen early next year. SUSPICIOUS

Russia is important to the 28-nation EU not only because it is the bloc's leading energy supplier but also because of its influence on issues such as Syria or Iran's nuclear programme.

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European Union's Russia debate a challenge for top diplomat Federica Mogherini

The European Union has given Poland more than 100 million eurosto build at least three "ghost" airports in places where there are not enough passengers to keep them in business.

The result is gleaming new airport terminals which, even at the peak of the holiday season, echo to the sound of empty concourses and spend millions trying to attract airlines.

Poland is not the only country in Europe to have built airports that struggle to attract flights. Around 80 airports in Europe attract fewer than 1 million passengers a year, and about three-quarters of those are in the red, according to industry body Airports Council International. Some cost much more to build than the Polish projects. One airport in eastern Spain, open for three years, has so far received not a single flight.

But Poland is striking because the country received so much money for its projects from EU funds.

Poland received 615.7 million euros in EU support for airports between 2007 and 2013, according to figures supplied to Reuters by the European Commission. That was almost twice as much as the next biggest recipient, Spain, and more than a third of all member states' money for airports. The government declined to provide all the information on which it based its decisions to invest in the airports, but Reuters has reviewed data on three sites where traffic fell dramatically short of forecasts.

Poland is often touted by Brussels as one of the most efficient users of EU aid, and there is no suggestion the country used EU airport money corruptly. European help has been vital in improving Poland's aviation infrastructure, only a small share of the country's airport spending has been on white elephants, and passenger shortfalls may have been exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crisis. Spokespeople at some airports said the projects could be considered a success because they were creating jobs, bringing in tourists, and driving investment in the regional economy.

But it is clear mistakes were made in Poland, planning officials and aviation executives say. The whole experience raises questions about how the government will handle the next big injection of EU money, which it expects to be 82 billion euros over the next seven years.

The problem is most striking at the recently rebuilt Lodz passenger terminal, where passenger numbers in 2013 fell almost one million short of forecasts, according to European Commission documents examined by Reuters.

On a relatively busy day this summer, just four flights arrived and four departed. In between, the place was almost deserted. In the early afternoon a single passenger, a woman in a blue-and-white striped T-shirt, sat in a 72-seat waiting area. Outside on the tarmac, five sets of movable steps stood waiting for a jet to land.

Where there aren't enough passengers to make an airport viable, local governments keep them on life support through subsidies, according to a report by CEE Bankwatch Network, a non-governmental watchdog. The beneficiaries have often been the airlines that use them.

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EU funds help Poland build 'ghost' airports

In the financial years 2007 2013, Romania benefited of over EUR 32 billion (including national allocations) from behalf of the European Union. By the end of the year 2012, our country had consumed no more than a little over 10 per cent of the funds attributed.

There were many reasons this engine of development failed to work. Some people blamed it on the fact that we were beginners, that we had no specialists to elaborate and finish eligible projects for payment out of European funds.

Yet, the truth is actually different. It is the hunger after effortlessly gained money. It is a mentality to be encountered frequently with other nations as well. Many civil servants and employees of administrative structures thought they could get advantage by various tricks of the money we deserved from the European funds allocated to Romania. It was not so, because bureaucrats in Brussels discovered that many projects were merely on paper and were not applied in reality. As a result, many Sectoral Operational Programs POS (out of the eight) were closed.

POS for Human Resources was not functional for over one year. Many issues were also encountered in programs dedicated to competitiveness, transportation and environment.

It was just after solving trials between the Romanian authorities and the European Commission that the attraction of European funds returned to the attention of local and central officials, as a factor of growth and modernization.

For a good coordination of activity after the parliamentary elections in 2012, the structure of the present Government featured a special Ministry, that of European Funds. This Ministry proved its capability to a great extent. Especially that Romania, as well as other states, demanded the European Commission a two year postponement of the deadline in the absorption of European funds to the period of financial years 2007 2013. It was the famous N + 2. A formula other EU member states have benefited of previously as well. Therefore, until December 2015, we still have the right to use European funds out of the EUR 32 billion we mentioned above.

At the beginning of the year 2013, the rate of absorption had reached over 25 per cent. Recently, a high official in the Ministry of European Funds outlined the fact that the absorption of European funds could reach 51 to 53 per cent by end of this year, for the period 2007 2013. By the end of November, the rate of absorption reached 44.64 per cent and the value of expenses declarations sent to the European Commission reached EUR 8.576 billion.

Ar the end of this year, we will probably reach absorption of over 50 per cent. Up to this moment, I think we have transmitted to the European Commission EUR 400 million, I cannot tell you precise figures. The objective we have established is to assure 80 per cent of absorption until the end of the year 2015, a percentage that might be similar to that of many member states, the representative of the Ministry of European Funds showed.

There are also fields that performed outstandingly as absorbers of European funds. An example is represented by the programs coordinated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR). The absorption of European funds in rural development will reach a percentage of 82 per cent by the end of this year, Vice-Prime Minister Daniel Constantin, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development declared at a conference that took place last week. The absorption of European founds for the program of rural development 2007 2013 went outstandingly and, by the end of this year, I hope we will reach a per cent of absorption of 82 per cent of PNDR. It is the program with the highest rate of absorption and I hope that, by the end of 2015 or, if the European Commission accepts Polands request, joined by Romania as well, to prolong by six months the N + 2 regulations, up to June 2016, Romania will reach a rate of absorption as close as possible to 100 per cent, Constantin mentioned.

On its turn, the Ministry for Informational Society (MSI) will reach a rate of fund absorption of 95 per cent by the end of 2015, and the IT & C department will represent direct investments in economy of EUR 1 billion during 2014 2020, Razvan Cotovelea, Informational Minister declared on Wednesday in a specialized conference.

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European fund absorption a hard nut to crack for Romania

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Book Review | Edward And Lane On European Union Law By Jr. Edward. D. Lavieri - Video