Gezamenlijke verklaring EU en Rusland: nieuwe gascrisis voorkomen (en)

A working meeting of the coordinators of the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue, Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Sergey Shmatko and Member of the European Commission responsible for energy Andris Piebalgs i, took place on 20 March 2009 in Moscow under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Sechin.

The Parties examined the status and perspectives of cooperation in the field of energy and:

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  took note of the timeliness of the structural changes that were carried out in the Energy Dialogue and the formation of the thematic groups in line with the priority directions of cooperation in the fields of strategies, forecasts and scenarios, market developments, and energy efficiency. This allowed to streamline the Dialogue with today’s realities and give a new impetus to its further development;
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  agreed to continue discussion on basic principles of cooperation between the EU and Russia in the field of energy. Under the guidance of these principles it is possible to minimise the negative consequences under the global financial and economic crisis and lower the risks to stable production, transportation and consumption of energy resources;
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  expressed support to the implementation of all infrastructure projects that aim at diversifying the supply of hydrocarbons to the EU, and also to the connection of the energy systems UCTE and IPS/UPS through back-to-back direct current links in order to provide energy security for the EU and Russia;
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  positively assessed the work of the mission of international observers towards eliminating the consequences of the gas crisis and agreed to continue the process of monitoring of gas transit through the gas transportation system of Ukraine in order to ensure the supply of Russian gas to European consumers;
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  agreed on further steps concerning the finalisation of the early warning mechanism for crisis situations with a view of not only predicting their emergence but also of reacting in a timely and prompt manner to disruptions of the supply of energy carriers to the EU in order to minimise possible damage, including via relevant preventive.