Russia and the European Union are likely move ahead toward starting negotiations on a new partnership and cooperation agreement at the beginning of 2008, Head of the European Commission Delegation to Russia Marc Franco said. The resolution of the problem of imports of Polish meat products to Russia lifted the main obstacle in the way of such talks, Franco said. Among other issues, that have been mentioned as potential obstacles to the start of these negotiations was, in particular, Russia’s ratification of the Energy Charter Treaty, Franco was quoted as saying in an interview.
He added, however, that he considered it unlikely that the countries that made such a claim would insist on it before the start of the negotiations. The only investment restriction that is contained in an EU draft energy directive is that on the acquisition of a controlling stake in trunk gas pipelines and electric grids by foreign entities, Franco said. Franco said the draft energy directive does not significantly limit foreign investment in the EU energy sector. On the other hand, he said he did not know a single country in the world - Russia not an exception - that would allow foreign entities to take control of such strategic elements as the transmission of electricity or gas.
At the same time, foreign entities can hold minority stakes in such enterprises, Franco said. Moreover, the European Commission’s proposals say clearly that there can be no restrictions for foreign investment in companies generating power or distributing it to consumers, and therefore foreign companies can have a controlling stake in them, he said. Franco said European Commission officials had discussed this issue with Russian government officials and gas sector executives. The EU depends on Russian imports for around a quarter of its natural gas consumption.
Russia and Germany launched work on the enormous Yuzhno Russkoye gas field in northwest Siberia last month, which will be jointly developed to feed the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Western Europe. Dmitry Medvedev, the likely successor to President Vladimir Putin in 2008, said the new field strengthened Europe’s energy security and showed Russian openness to foreign partnerships. “It will make an important contribution to the energy security of Europe,” Medvedev said at a joint press conference in Moscow with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier at which the two pressed a button starting production at the Russian-German project in northern Siberia. Under Medvedev’s chairmanship, Gazprom has also sought to increase its role in Europe’s downstream gas retail market.
It is possible that longdelayed talks on a new Russia- EU partnership agreement could begin during the sixmonth presidency, which Slovenia began on January 1, taking over from Portugal, said Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on European affairs. Those talks were vetoed by Poland in protest over a Russian ban on imports of Polish meat that was dropped by Moscow in December. “There is a definite basis to think that in the coming year, if the European Commission manages to solve the problem of the Polish veto that the long awaited negotiations would possibly begin under the Slovenian presidency,” Yastrzhembsky said.
The deputy head of the foreign affairs committee of Russia’s upper house of parliament, Vasily Likhachyov, said talks on a new EU-Russia agreement would likely begin “in the near future.” Russia on January 1 welcomed Slovenia’s taking over the EU’s rotating presidency as a chance to improve troubled ties between Moscow and Brussels. “We have a good feeling about this presidency. Slovenia is a close partner,” Yastrzhembsky said. “There is not one cloud on the horizon of Russian- Slovenian relations,” Yastrzhembsky said.