* "Hard to understand Lufthansa's approach" - EU spokesman
* Friday Lufthansa offer was worse than previous one - EU
* Lufthansa says EU has its offer, no further comment
(Adds more quotes from Commission spokesman)
By Ilona Wissenbach
BRUSSELS, July 13 (Reuters) - The European Commission on Monday raised doubts whether Lufthansa was still "genuinely interested" in buying Austrian Airlines (AUA), given what it proposed to address antitrust concerns.
A spokesman for the European Union's executive body told a daily news briefing that he had no indication that the German carrier would improve proposed remedies for the planned AUA, and that time was running out fast for the deal.
He said Lufthansa had formalised proposals it offered to the Commission to address concerns that the deal may hurt competition, but these were insufficient and worse than what Lufthansa had offered previously.
"These remedies were worse than the first remedies they had offered to the Commission during the first phase of the investigation," Commission spokesman Jonathan Todd told a daily news briefing.
"Since then, Lufthansa has given the Commission no indication that it wants to revise its proposed remedies," he said. "It's rather difficult to understand this attitude and approach if they are genuinely interested in pursuing this deal."
A spokeswoman for Lufthansa in Frankfurt only said that the carrier had filed a formal offer with the EU executive on Friday. "The EU has our offer," she said.
Lufthansa's takeover bid for AUA, agreed last December, is valid only until July 31 and the airline can walk away from the deal if it has not won EU antitrust approval by then, or if the EU's conditions are too onerous.
The EU executive's formal deadline for reviewing the proposed takeover is Nov. 6. It is separately also reviewing 500 million euros ($696 million) in state aid that is also part of the Lufthansa deal.
DIRE OUTLOOK
For AUA, the future without Lufthansa looks bleak.
The carrier posted a 429 million euro net loss last year and has piled up 1 billion euro in debt. It only survived this spring due to a 200 million euro lifeline loan by the Austrian government, its controlling shareholder.
AUA had 76 million euros of cash left at the end of March after total cash outflows of 66 million euros in the quarter. If the Lufthansa bid collapsed, it would need a significant capital increase quickly to avoid insolvency, analysts say.
The Commission said it would make a rapid decision if Lufthansa satisfied its competition concerns over routes flown by the two airlines.
But in the absence of effective remedies, Todd added, the chances of a decision before the end of July were fading fast.
"The Commission has particular concerns about routes from Vienna to Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Cologne, Zurich, Geneva and Brussels," Todd said.
"On all of these routes, in fact, on all routes currently flown by the two airlines, we need to be satisfied that there would be alternative airlines available within a reasonable period of time to offer passengers a choice," he said.
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For stories on state aid, M&As ($1=.7189 Euro) (Reporting by Bate Felix in Brussels and Maria Sheahan in Frankfurt; Editing by Dale Hudson and Jon Loades-Carter)