Nieuwe Europarlementariërs uit Oost-Europa brengen ander perspectief op Rusland mee in Europees Parlement, aldus Jerzy Buzek (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Members of the European Parliament from central and eastern Europe have brought a different perspective on Russia and energy security to Brussels, the president of the EU legislature, Jerzy Buzek, said in an interview with this website.

"We are very much interested and sometimes worried about the EU's relations with Russia," he said. "It's a very sensitive issue to some countries, especially the Baltic states, which were inside the Soviet Union. We need Russia, of course, but I think Russia needs us as well and we should base our co-operation on shared rules and values."

Mr Buzek, a former Polish prime minister and activist in the anti-Communist Solidarity movement, is the first European Parliament head to come from an ex-Iron Curtain state following the 2004 round of enlargement.

He said that questions of democracy and human rights "should never be omitted when talking to Moscow," as well as other major powers such as China.

On the subject of "energy security" - a phrase which has gained prominence in Europe after several disruptions to Russian gas imports - Mr Buzek warned that bilateral deal-making with Russian companies hurts EU interests.

"We are losing because we don't take a common decision on the issue of negotiations with suppliers."

He voiced "strong belief" in Nabucco, an EU-backed pipeline project designed to reduce energy dependency on Russia, while saying that South Stream, a rival Russian scheme backed by Italy and France, is "weakening our EU project."

"We take decisions based on our own interest, but very often that is not in the interest of the whole EU. It would be better if we could take the decision at EU level and negotiate for all member states, taking into account the long term perspective, not just a year or two," he said.

Talks on a new EU-Russia Partnership and Co-operation Agreement are proving "very difficult" because of Russia's refusal to adopt the Energy Charter Treaty, the parliament president added, referring to an old pact to help EU companies invest in Russia's energy sector.

But the Pole remained optimistic that the EU's nascent energy policy will bear fruit in the coming years.

"Our common market of capital, goods and services took some years to build and function properly. We just started with a common energy policy and we've already taken some important decisions, such as cross-border connections, how to tackle gas and electricity issues inside the EU and help each other in case of emergency."

EU perspective for Moldova and Ukraine

In comments on another prickly area in EU-Russia relations, Mr Buzek made the case for "opening the door" to future EU membership for countries such as Moldova and Ukraine on the model of the Balkan states.

"In the Balkans we had a horrible war more than 10 years ago. And now every country - Albania, Kosovo, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia - all are queuing for EU membership. And this means no war," he said.

The European Parliament's new assembly with MPs from the six countries in the EU's recently-launched "Eastern Partnership" policy - Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, Armenia and Azerbaijan - will help transform the region by fostering civil society, Mr Buzek believes.

"Civil society is the most important thing. It's the basis for democracy, a real market economy, social reforms, culture, education. We've been through that, in Poland and other central and eastern European states. We have the same task now ahead with the Eastern Partnership."

EU economic solidarity

Mr Buzek hopes that his mandate, which ends in December 2011, will see further softening of the disparities between "old" and "new" member states in what will one day be a "common" Europe.

"I would like to see the re-unification of our continent and a deep feeling that all member states, despite different levels of development, feel responsible for the whole EU and that we feel solidarity among us, ready to help any region in the EU which needs it," he said.

Europe's so-called cohesion policy - which provides aid for infrastructure, sewage systems and energy connections to the bloc's poorest regions - has been important to the new member states, whose MEPs have "a special sensitivity" to the issue, Mr Buzek explained.

With discussions on the EU's next seven-year budget likely to be more tense than ever due to the economic crisis, he stressed that EU cohesion policy remains important not only for the newcomers, but also for some regions in Finland, Portugal, Spain or the former East Germany.

Mr Buzek argued that it was "natural" for national governments to react in a protectionist way in a crisis, when "people start to be slightly selfish."

"But we must explain that it is actually thanks to the integration of member states that the [EU] economy is stronger than it would have been without it," the parliament president said.