Victoria Panfilova, columnist for NG. Exclusively to VK, Strasbourg – Moscow
The creation of Eurasian Energy Union, which would include Russia and European countries, can help solve all the energy problems of the Old World. Such a proposal was put forward by Italian MEP Fabrizio Bertot during the fourth session of the Russian-European Energy Forum "Unified Energy Platform: the foundation of the future security of Europe", which was held at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. According to the results of the forum, inter-parliamentary group "Russia - EU" adopted a resolution on the need for more active steps to establish a single legal regime between the EU member states and Russia to implement cross-border projects in the energy sector. Besides, the forum participants agreed that the basis of energy security remains traditional generation rather than alternative sources.
The energy dialogue between Russia and Europe has been continuing for 10 years. According to the head of the State Duma Committee on Energy Ivan Grachev, the main stage of the approval of the "road map" with the Europeans has passed. Finally, mutually beneficial and constructive dialogue is developing, which the Russian side sought for a very long time.
To implement this idea, ten years ago, the EU and Russia started to develop an energy "road map". Clearly, developing cooperation with Russia in the energy sector, the EU seeks primarily to secure access to Russia's resource base and to participate in its development, as well as to guarantee the reliability and continuity of energy transportation to the EU internal market.
But if in the course of the second forum, which was held in Brussels in October 2011, which was attended by the author of the article, the political heat was felt – in particular, some MEPs expressed suspicions that Russia may use energy as leverage, at the current forum in Strasbourg the dialogue was far more constructive. The deputies recognized that not only the European Union depends on Russian gas supplies, but Russia as a supplier is also in direct dependence on the European gas consumption.
"Europe needs Russian gas", the MEP from Bulgaria Vlatko Panaiotov said. The parliamentarian sees no problems in signing long-term bilateral contracts for energy supply. He believes that "without Russia, Europe has no future," and encourages the two sides to separate the political problems from the economic ones.
MP from Hungary Bela Kovacs in an interview with VK said that without dialogue between Russia and the European Union today, there would not be the "Nord Stream" , and the "South Stream" would not be built. However, he is convinced that the results should be much larger than today: "People who make decisions are often guided by political motives not taking into account the reasonable economic factors". According to Kovacs, the EU has demanded from Russia to revise the agreement on gas pipeline under construction "South Stream" with those countries through the territory of which the pipeline will pass – Bulgaria, Hungary , Slovenia, Croatia , Austria and Greece.
Looking back, this is about the statement of the director of the Department of Internal Energy Market of the European Commission Klaus-Dieter Borchardt , who at a meeting with MEPs in early December said that the whole point is the disparity between the "South Stream" and the accepted norms of the "Third Energy Package", according to which the suppliers of "blue fuel " cannot own a pipeline. In other words, the EU is not satisfied with the fact that the Russian "Gazprom" will not only become the owner of the pipe, but also will dictate its gas tariffs . The European official said that the best way is to let the third-parties use the "South Stream", and the tariff setting should be entrusted to an independent manager. However, the MEPs during the forum in Strasbourg criticized the "Third Energy Package", which was enacted in 2009. They believe that the "Third Energy Package" of the EU complicates not only the work of "Gazprom", but in general prevents putting into practice the cross-border energy projects, creating difficulties for both suppliers and consumers .
According to Kovacs, the whole point is that the EU does not have a common energy policy: "It has not been developed until today. I think that every country has the right, given its legislation, to make contracts which suit itself. The European Union has no right to dictate to them what to do".
According to experts, the demand for natural gas in Europe by 2030 will increase from 65 billion cubic meters to 150 billion cubic meters per year, and taking into account the fact that some EU countries have adopted the program to remove nuclear power plants, it can be assumed that the demand would continue to rise, and in 2050, according to preliminary estimates, it could reach up to 200 billion cubic meters per year. Russia will be able to provide the necessary volumes of gas to Europe. But it is too early to talk about the plans for 2050. This was stated by Russian Deputy Ivan Grachev during the Brussels Forum. He has not changed his opinion by today. According to him, 2030 will be a bifurcation point. Accordingly, without approving it, it is useless to dream of the 2050s. But it is now clear that if in the near future the European Union and Russia do not reach clear agreements, by 2030 China will claim all the Siberian resources.
