RusEnergy

23.11.2006 MosNews - Russia will not ratify the Energy Charter in its current form, because it would damage the country’s economic interests, the president’s top adviser on EU affairs said Wednesday, Nov. 22. “Russia will not ratify the [Energy Charter] treaty and protocol in their present form, and the European Union knows this very well,” Sergei Yastrzhembsky said, quoted by RIA Novosti. The agreement is set to be a key sticking point at the upcoming EU-Russia summit, which begins Friday, Nov. 24, in Helsinki. Poland has vetoed EU plans to launch talks at the summit on a new cooperation agreement with Russia, demanding that Moscow first ratify the Energy Charter and end its ban on certain Polish food products. However, Moscow considers the charter to be skewered in favor of energy importers. The presidential adviser said: “We find it unacceptable that energy transit tariffs should be the same for domestic and foreign consumers. We cannot accept the loss of our natural advantage as a transit country with a unique, diversified pipeline system, over which we will effectively lose control if we ratify the treaty and the protocols as they stand now,” he said. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said Wednesday that Moscow has no intention of ratifying the charter, because it is flawed. Lavrov was quoted as saying: “The EU side is aware of the document’s flaws. The recent meeting of the Energy Charter signatories shows that our position is receiving more understanding.” The Energy Charter treaty came into force in 1998. Russia has signed it but refused to ratify the document over Europe’s demands for access to Russian pipelines for Central Asian states and other countries, which Moscow says will make their natural gas 50 percent cheaper than Russia’s when it arrives in Europe.