Brussels – a conference on the EU-Russia Energy Relations organised by the EU-Russia Centre and chaired by the president of the EMI Pat Cox was held on the 10th of February 2009. The EU-Russia Centre is an independent information and expertise resource, headed by the German politician Wolfgang Clement.

In January 2009, Russia stopped the gas supply to the Ukraine because of some discrepancies referring to gas prices. This led to a disruption in gas supply in Europe, but some Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia or Bulgaria were amongst the most affected countries as their supplies rely almost solely on Russia through the Ukraine.

The conference started with a short review of recent events by Marjeta Jager, Director of the DG for Energy and Transports at the European Commission. The European Commission emphasised the importance of a unified position of European Member States facing the monopoly role of Gazprom, because Russia will always remain a major partner of the EU when energy is concerned. The European Commission worked hard during the crisis in order to mediate the conflict between the two countries over gas prices. Marjeta Jager always praised the great solidarity that had been witnessed between member states to help one another.

As from now, the key will be to restore confidence between the three partners so that such a situation does not occur again, but also to find other sources of supply, so as not to rely as heavily on Russia (hence the importance of the NABUCO project).

Pierre Noel, Senior Policy Fellow of the European Council on Foreign Relations, emphasised the fact that the right question was not being asked during this debate. The question whether Russia is a reliable partner really depends on history and geographical place: for Finland and Germany Russia is really reliable, whereas in Eastern Europe the answer is no. Russia has the ability to work with many different partners through bilateral agreements, hence deciding to be reliable or not. If the EU manages to unify its energy market, transforming it into a competitive one, then Russia will have to become more reliable. For this to happen, the EU needs its bigger countries to be involved, especially France and Germany. The European Commission will have to work with key politicians in key countries to achieve such a goal, but it is not happening at the moment. Countries of the EU will need to make major investments in the future in order to secure their energy security.

The Czech Presidency will also try to organise a conference in Prague on energy, with supplier countries, but not only the traditional ones like Russia, Norway, but also with Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, also with transit countries such as Turkey and Azerbaijan and others like Iraq.

Daniel Kostoval, Director of North and East Europe Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, also took part in the discussion, offered an analysis from the point of view of the Czech Presidency which took parts in all the mediation during the crisis.

He also stated the obvious fact that the EU needed to diversify its energy supplies and put Russia in its place: a supplier of energy, not able to interfere in EU politics. If the EU manages to diversify its supplies and create one single energy market then things will be much easier and such a crisis could then be avoided, because the equation is simple: the EU needs gas, and Russia needs to sell its gas.

The closing remarks of Wolfgang Clement began with: ‘Would you trade with a partner if you don’t rely on it? So the question would not be if Russia is a reliable partner, the question would be if we want to maintain this relationship. If we do so, we have to trust it and we have to be more self-confident in a powerful European Union. Russia would need the European Union as a consumer because it has proved its reliability’.