Energy dialog between Russia and the EU

In his opening speech, the president of the Russian Gas Society and Vice Chairman of the Russian State Duma, Dr. Valerij Jasev, demanded a new partnership in competition between Russia and the EU. Because of the increasing need on gas and oil in the EU as well as Russia’s problems with an outdated infrastructure and inefficient use of energy, a better integration between the distributor and consumer is necessary. Jasev criticized, that the EU will expand its energy strategy towards Russia without asking for the needs of its most important distributor. The EU energy strategy will lead to an overregulation and deformation of the energy market. As a result necessary investments in infrastructure will be impeding.

Especially the 3. Energy Package of the EU provoked controversial positions in the course of the conference. The general director at the department for energy and transport of the European Commission, Dr. Matthias Rüte, emphasized, that in fact since the beginning 2006 the EU have a vision in energy policy, but still the member states are the main players in this field. Aim of the EU is to reach better access for investment to the Russian energy market for European companies and to improve environment protection and energy efficiency in Russia. The head of the international office of Gazprom, Stanislav Tzygankov, criticized the 3. Energy Package of the EU because of its effects on the international level. The main goal is unbundling of the energy market by separate energy production and transport. How to implement the unbundling of the energy market is still not clear. But this policy could violate the freedom of capital and of property as well of non-EU-states. For companies like Gazprom it is uncertain how the EU will deal with existing and future investment in infrastructure projects. As a result there will be less investment and less security of supply for the EU. In this context the president of the Russian Entrepreneur Association, Alexander Shokhin, emphasized, that Russian companies are interested in investment in European energy markets. But especially in this area the EU plans more barriers for investment. In Russia in contrast are no barriers for investment except in fields of national interest. Processing of raw material would be one example for a field with good foreign investment possibilities in Russia.

The president of EuroGas, Domenico Dispenza, represented the position, that the EU have developed its energy strategy in the last years, now it’s Russia’s turn. Demands of the EU are more transparency, access to the infrastructure, protection of foreign investment and the allowance of market mechanism in Russia. At the same time Dispenza argued, that an energy dialog with Russia is important and the EU should pay more attention on the special conditions in Russia. In reference to the 3. Energy Package of the EU Senior Executive Vice President of Gaz de France, Jean-Marie Dauger, pointed out that it would lead to more regulation and affects the market conditions in energy. For better adjustment with Russia he called for supporting the dialog with Russia and upgrading cooperation mechanisms. In the centre of the presentation of the vice-chairman of the Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, Dr. Burckhard Bergmann, were the good relations between Germany and Russia in the energy sector. The Russian energy industry is to a large extend liberalized, like investments for instance of E.ON show. Germany has an open market and interest in investment. Also for Russian companies there should be equal opportunities for investment.

The chairman of the Committee for Foreign Relations of the Russian State Duma, Konstantin Kosachiov, pointed out an increasing politicization of the energy dialog between the EU and Russia. Instead of developing a common future model, the tendency of the current policy is containment. Russia doesn’t need this politicization of energy, but especially in the EU some states stoke fears of Russia. For him especially the new Central Eastern European States are guilty on this development. Simultaneously he criticized the Energy Charta as a document of EU interests but not of Russian. On the other hand Kosachiov refer to the problem, that in Russia to many decision are top down and also in the energy field there are deficits in management. Therefore in the area of management as well as energy efficiency and renewable energy Russia should more intensive cooperate with the EU.

This conference has shown, that in the field of energy there are a lot of controversial positions between the EU and Russia. But both sides are interested in a dialog. Because of the existing interdependence there is a consensus between Russia and the EU that future challenges in the area of energy can only be managed through partnership and cooperation.