Russia will not ratify a European Energy Charter or its transit
protocol in its current form to pave the way for new partnership
agreement with the EU, a Kremlin aide said on Wednesday.
"There are other options. The European Union has proposed that
the principles of cooperation in the energy sector be included in
the future basic agreement between Russia and the EU. We are not
against this," Kremlin aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky was quoted by the
Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
"We shall be prolonging the existing agreement, which expires in
2007, until a new one,? that satisfies both sides has been
formulated," he said.
However, Poland vetoed last week an EU plan to launch
negotiations on a new EU-Russia agreement on partnership and
cooperation, citing a Russian ban on meat imports from Poland as
against its interests.
Yastrzhembsky believes that the European Commission's lack of a
mandate for talks with Russia on a new partnership agreement is a
purely internal affair of the EU.
"The ball is in the EU court. That's the EU's own problem," he
told the media.
"As far as Russia's suspended import of Polish meat is
concerned, it is a purely technical problem, and it has no bearing
whatsoever on the agreement between Russia and the EU on
partnership. The Polish side knows pretty well what is to be done
to change the situation," he said.
Russia banned the imports last year after finding that some
veterinary certificates had been forged. Poland and the EU said the
move was unjustified, as Polish products are accepted across the
continent.
Warsaw has also demanded that Russia ratify the Energy Charter
Treaty that would force it to liberalize its oil and gas sector.
Moscow has refused to implement the document and is seeking
changes.
Talks on a new pact, which will focus on areas such as energy,
trade, investment and human rights, had been expected to start at
an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki on Friday.
(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2006)
