Marko Mihkelson, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Estonian parliament, in Tallinn in December 2004.
Photo: Aleksandr Guzhov
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Pipe Protest
// Europe Condemns Russia's Energy Politics
Yesterday deputies at the current session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg passed a resolution condemning the use of energy as an tool of political pressure. The authors of the resolution roundly criticized Russia for its methods of resolving energy disputes with its neighbors, claiming that Russia's actions have cast doubt on the country's reliability as a energy supplier. Eighty-one deputies voted for the resolution, and fourteen voted against it. The count was made by Kommersant's special correspondent in Strasbourg, Nargiz Asadova.
PACE's Fears
The vote on the resolution yesterday was preceded by stormy debate on the topic of Europe's energy security. The issue was raised by Estonian deputy Marko Mihkelson, who prepared a special report on the matter entitled "Concerning the Threat of the Use of Energy Supplies as Instruments of Political Pressure." Immediately upon taking the floor, Mr. Mihkelson rushed to criticize Russia: "This Assembly condemns any attempt to use energy supplies to do battle against movements towards democracy, as has unfortunately happened in the relationship between Russia and Ukraine, as well as during the recent Russian-Georgian crisis. We believe that it is vital to ensure equal access to energy products."
Mr. Mihkelson's report elicited a lively response from the delegates at the session. The almost record number of delegates present at yesterday's meeting – 46 people participated in the discussion – testifies to the fact that Moscow's means of resolving energy disputes with its neighbors are considered serious cause for alarm. "That points to enormous interest in the problem of energy security," said Mr. Mihkelson from the PACE speaker's podium yesterday.
The idea to bring up the subject of energy at the PACE session dates from the period of the "gas wars" fought by Russia against Ukraine and Georgia at the beginning of 2006. While Mr. Mihkelson was working on the report, another energy scandal arose, this time between Russia and Belarus. During that crisis, five EU countries were deprived of Russian oil from January 8 to January 11, 2007. In addition, last week the Russian State Duma began to seriously discuss the possibility of imposing energy sanctions on Estonia, whose parliament recently decided to remove a Soviet war memorial from the center of Tallinn. Due to lack of time, the tension between Estonia and Russia was not discussed at yesterday's meeting, but deputies did manage to include the Russia-Belarus conflict on the agenda.
Earlier Konstantin Kosachev, the head of the Russian PACE delegation, said that the Russian side had been able to remove the majority of the unflattering references to Russia during work on the report. However, Georgian deputies Nino Nakashidze and Giga Bokeria endeavored successfully to add an unpleasant "politicized" surprise for Moscow to the document by insisting that the following point be added: "The Assembly is concerned by the fact that Russia's gas market is almost totally monopolized by Gazprom. In the interests of all of the [Council's] member-states, attempts should be made to open the system of gas transport to domestic and foreign competition, thus ensuring that investment in the extraction and transport of gas is sufficient both to meet domestic demand and to fulfill export obligations." In a conversation with Kommersant's correspondent, Ms. Nakashidze also expressed dissatisfaction with Russia's pricing policies in the sphere of energy products. "The price for Georgia cannot be the same as that for Germany, because the distance between Russia and Germany is much more than between Russia and Georgia. What's more, pipelines across Georgia could have been an alternative route for supplying energy products to Europe. It is possible that this is why Russia is doing everything it can to promulgate instability in our region."
The Russian camp, dissatisfied with the amendment introduced by Georgia, has begun to suspect a double standard. "Earlier they defended Ukrainian "orange" democracy, but now that our relations with Ukraine are all wine and roses, whom do they have to defend? Belarus? I'm sorry, but come on," objected Russian Senator Mikhail Margelov.
PACE's Recommendations
In the text of the resolution, Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus are introduced as examples of how deliveries of oil and gas can be used to exert political pressure. The majority of Mr. Mihkelson's report, however, deals with more serious problems than political squabbles between individual members of the Council of Europe. "The Parliamentary Assembly recognizes that the shifting energy landscape has become a cause for concern in all regions of the world, particularly in most of Europe. Europe's energy demand for fossil fuels, especially oil and gas, is continuing to grow and is predicted to increase to 60% by 2030," says the resolution's first point. An addendum to the document states that the countries of European Union already import 27% of their oil from Russia, 19% from the Near East, 16% from Norway, and 12% from North Africa.
Europe's dependence on gas supplies is even larger. Together, four of its member-countries – Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Denmark – produce only 46% of the amount of gas that the EU needs. The rest has to be imported from Russia (25%), Norway (15%), North Africa, Nigeria, and the Near East (together 14%). Thus, the Assembly "emphasizes the necessity of stable and friendly economic relations in the energy sector between European energy exporters, the Russian Federation, and European countries that depend on imports of Russian energy products." The resolution's third point is given over to a definition of the European understanding of energy security: "The security of energy supplies, which includes the stability and reliability of energy supplies as well as transparency in pricing of energy resources, is an essential condition for the smooth and continuous development of national and regional economies."
The resolution also mentions the absence of transparency in the energy market's pricing policies: "At the moment, prices in the energy sector are not set in accordance with the principles of a market economy. This problem should be addressed by European countries in order to make sure that prices reflect levels of demand, supply, or seasonal fluctuations."
Last year's conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova are the subject of the document's eighth point, which talks about the necessity of diversifying imports of energy resources. "This necessity is dictated by the fact that if the current situation remains unchanged, by 2020 gas dependence on Russia will be significantly higher than it is now. For historical reasons, the countries of Eastern and Central Europe are largely dependent on exports of Russian energy products. For countries like Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine, and several new members of the European Union, this has become a cause for enormous concern."
This is not the only reason for Europe's nervous vigilance. In an addendum to the resolution, Marko Mihkelson mentions the opinion of the International Energy Agency, according to whose calculations Europe will suffer a shortfall of 126 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia by 2010, "mostly because of a low quality of infrastructure coupled with a Soviet approach to managing the Russian gas market." In order to protect themselves from poor management in the Russian energy sector, as well as from possible attempts by Russia to misuse its position as the chief supplier of energy products to Europe, PACE is recommending that the Council of Europe's cabinet of ministers take precautionary measures. These measures primarily include the creation of a pan-European analysis center that will begin a dialog about energy security in Europe and work out a general strategy for cooperation in the energy sector, including questions of diversification, transport, transparent pricing, modernization and building of infrastructure, and the development of alternative sources of energy. The Assembly is also convinced that the creation of transparent energy systems in Europe will be possible only if Russia ratifies the Energy Charter and signs a transit protocol.
The document also pushes for third-party countries to be encouraged to join the energy network. At first, the point read, "Russia should allow third-party countries into the energy network." However, as the Russian delegation proudly told your Kommersant correspondent, the Russian side succeeded in getting the word "Russia" removed from the sentence. "Now that point has become absolutely absurd and useless," exalted the delegates.
Nargiz Asadova
All the Article in Russian as of Jan. 24, 2007
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