Rusland weigert energie-handvest met de EU te tekenen (en)

Russia has once again resisted European pressure and repeated its opposition to signing a key energy pact that would open up competition and foreign access to its oil and gas fields.

"We don't reject the principles of the Energy Charter, moreover we are guided by these principles. However, some of its mechanisms related to transit and investment are unacceptable for us," said foreign minister Sergei Lavrov following a high-level bilateral meeting with EU counterparts in Moscow on Monday (5 February).

European leaders have increased their efforts to get Russia to ratify the 1998 Energy Charter ever since gas supply cuts to the bloc in early 2006 made it clear how dependent the EU is on its large neighbour for energy supplies.

Last year a series of actions against foreign firms - including keeping foreign capital out of the development of the Shtokman gas field - also set off alarm bells in national capitals.

But Russia is objecting to parts of the charter that relate to investment and would allow competitition between foreign and domestic energy investors, saying that the EU must offer more in return for this access.

EU efforts to get a bilateral treaty off the ground that would cover energy, trade and economic issues have also stalled, however.

The 27-nation bloc is trying to renew its current partnership treaty with Moscow, running out this year, with more emphasis on its energy aspects such as transit and investment guarantees.

But negotiations came unstuck in autumn last year when Poland insisted that Russia must first lift its ban on Polish meat and vegetable imports.

Since then the EU has moved inch by inch to solve the meat wrangle, bumping it up its own political agenda and dispatching health experts off at regular intervals to assess the complaints of both sides.

Russia holds that Poland is not maintaining adequate certification standards while Warsaw says Moscow's ban is political punishment for its support of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Lavrov described the delays in the bilateral treaty as "artificial" and called on Poland to help remove them.

For its part, the German EU presidency was more positive in its outlook about energy relations between the two sides.

"I can imagine broader cooperation in the field of energy relations and I hope that the hurdles which are still in the way of opening the talks will be done away with soon," said German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to AP.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Russian news agency Interfax, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana noted that it is not a one-sided relationship and that both sides are dependent on each other.

"We are mutually interdependent in this sector_ Russia is and will remain the EU's foremost external energy supplier," he said. "As for the EU, it is set to remain Russia's most important energy buyer and foreign investor."

Mr Solana was confident that talks on a new EU-Russia agreement would be launched again in a few months.

"I am convinced that the issue will be solved in the upcoming weeks, and that we can then launch negotiations for the new EU-Russia Agreement before the summer."