Medvedev to renew call for energy treaty at summit

Dmitry Medvedev, the president of Russia, will present European Union leaders with a plan for a comprehensive global energy treaty at a summit in Khabarovsk, in Russia's far east, next week (21-22 May). 

Russia wants to convince the EU that it should abandon the energy charter treaty, signed in 1994 and in force since 1998, and back instead a new instrument to enhance energy security.

“The offer on the table is to address, in a comprehensive way, the energy security issues of the producers, consumers and the transit countries,” Sergey Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said in Washington, DC, last week (7 May).

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Russia has signed but not ratified the energy charter treaty. Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, said that the treaty had been negotiated during a very different time and was no longer the proper instrument for the task. “The serious people in the EU understand that instead of pursuing ratification of this outdated document we should discuss a new document,” Chizhov told European Voice. He said that the interruption in Russian gas deliveries to the EU through Ukraine last winter demonstrated that the energy charter treaty was not working.

Security

Medvedev is also likely to raise at the summit his proposal for a new security architecture in Europe, which he first launched in a speech in Evian, France, last October. But the plan, which seeks to replace NATO with a more comprehensive security organisation, is unlikely to get more than a polite response from the European side.

Ambassadors from EU member states will discuss the EU-Russia summit's agenda today (14 May). Russia and the EU are in the midst of negotiations on a new agreement to replace the existing Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, signed in 1994. The fifth round of talks is scheduled for next month.

? Preparations for the summit with Russia are currently the only confirmed item on the agenda for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels next Monday (18 May). Possible other agenda points include discussions on the Middle East, Iran, Georgia and Moldova. The foreign ministers will also discuss with defence ministers the EU's ongoing military missions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and off the coast of Somalia.