Brussels to publish plans for closer EU energy union

* Projects on list would get faster approval, some cash

* Focus on less dependency on Russia, ending energy islands

By Barbara Lewis

BRUSSELS, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Britain's plans for closer power and gas links with continental Europe would get a boost under a new list of priority projects to be published next week, as part of a drive for a single European Union market for energy supplies.

The list of Projects of Common Interest, seen by Reuters, also includes infrastructure that could reduce the energy dependency of the Baltic States and southeastern Europe on leading supplier Gazprom, Russia's state gas giant.

Brussels regulators have used the crisis with Russia over its seizure of the Crimea peninsula from Ukraine to press ahead with plans for a single energy union, based on increased grid and pipeline connections between the 28 EU member states.

Britain is not directly affected by the Russian crisis as it is not dependent on its gas, but it is nervous about the adequacy of national supplies and the extra costs it might incur from emergency back up plans.

The list of priority projects - entitled to accelerated planning permission and some EU money - includes a first grid link between Belgium and Britain, being built by British power grid operator National Grid (LSE: NG.L - news) and Belgium's Elia,

as well as power and gas links between Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) and Britain.

The European Commission's aim is that nations should have at least three options for gas supplies, while costs would be lowered and supplies made more secure because available energy would be shared out more effectively.

The Commission, expected to publish the list next week, is also seeking to enforce a goal that each country should be able to get 10 percent of its power generation capacity through interconnection by 2020.

Britain, Ireland and Italy, as well as Spain and Portugal, are virtual energy islands, with connection capacities of just 3 to 5 percent, according to Commission figures.

Some projects have been removed from the list, which is updated intermittently, including connections between Switzerland, with which plans for closer links have faltered following a referendum in 2014 that narrowly backed limiting immigration from EU countries.

Free movement of people and jobs within its borders is one of the fundamental policies of the European Union, and Switzerland, while not a member of the bloc, had participated under a pact with Brussels.

Britain is set for its own referendum on EU membership by the end of 2017.

No-one from the Commission was immediately available for comment on the draft document, expected to be published as part of a state of the energy union address. (Editing by Mark Potter)