MEPs concerned over Russian grip on energy supply

MEPs have voiced concern about the potential energy "stranglehold" Moscow may have over the EU in coming years.

Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, UK centre right MEP Giles Chichester, chairman of the European Energy Forum, said the threat was highlighted by Russia´s recent invasion of Georgia.

"The potential Russia has in the energy field could be used as political and diplomatic lever over the EU. Therefore, for reasons of security of supply and climate change policy, it is all the more important that we pursue alternative technologies and fuels," he said.

Chichester, the EPP coordinator on parliament´s energy committee,was chairing a roundtable organised by the EU Ukraine Business Council, Open Ukraine Foundation and the Ukraine Mission to the EU on Ukraine´s role in EU energy policy.

He said the event has emphasised the importance of finding other sources of energy in order to reduce the EU´s current reliance on Russia for its oil and gas supplies.

His comments were echoed by another British Tory MEP, Charles Tannock, who told the seminar that Russia´s recent invasion of Georgia had propelled the issue of  EU energy policy to "the top of the agenda."

Even the UK ,  which imports less than 5 per cent of its gas from Russia,is, said  Tannock, "fully signed" up to the idea of a common EU energy policy.

He said, "What all this illustrates is the importance of the EU and Ukraine putting on a united front in order to face down the stranglehold on energy supply of a more aggressive Russian government."

Tannock also called for the development of nuclear power and renewable energy, particularly clean-coal technology, in order to counter the perceived Russian threat.

The MEP also expressed disappointment at the recent refusal to offer Ukraine a clear path to EU membership, a move which frustrated Ukrainian officials who said the EU had thrown away a golden opportunity to stabilise its eastern frontier and encourage political and economic reform in Kiev.

A communique issued on Tuesday at an EU-Ukrainian summit set out a framework for closer ties between Kiev and the 27-nation EU, but omitted the crucial words “membership perspective” to describe Ukraine’s future relationship with the EU.

Ukraine, a country of 46m people wedged between the EU and Russia, had hoped that Russia’s military assault on Georgia last month, and its subsequent attempt to partition the former Soviet republic, might prompt the EU to go the extra mile for Ukraine.

Tannock called the EU s decision "illogical" insisting that Ukraine should have been offered firmer prospects of joining the "EU family."

Even so, he said there were "many,many" ways in which the EU and Ukraine were forging closer links.

Meanwhile, ALDE group leader Graham Watson says that recent Russian incursions into Georgia have merely served to focus minds in Kiev and Brussels on the nature of their long-term relationship.

The EU-Ukraine summit today in Paris was intended to assess the current state of negotiations of a free trade agreement between the two sides and resolve some of the specific issues such as visa policy.

 But Watson says events last month in the south Caucasus have served as a catalyst and convinced EU leaders of the need to consolidate stability on its eastern border by offering to upgrade existing negotiations to that of an associate agreement.

He said, "Paradoxically, prime minister Putin's military adventure in the summer has done more for the cohesion of EU foreign policy than any number of council statements could have achieved. He has re-awakened the demons of the former Soviet era and pushed many former soviet satellites to seek shelter and stability in the EU framework."

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