MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A full-scale cooperation between Russia and the European Union will eventually be restored, speaker of the upper house of the Russian parliament Valentina Matvienko said Monday.
"I am confident that we will revive full cooperation," Matvienko said, speaking about the scale of bilateral trade between Russia and the European Union.
According to Matvienko, the benefits stemming from the strengthening of ties between the European Union and the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) were obvious.
Moscow's relations with Brussels deteriorated in 2014 over the Ukrainian crisis, when the European Union along with the United States as well as several other countries imposed several rounds of sanctions against Russia, accusing it of meddling in Ukrainian internal affairs. Moscow has repeatedly denied the allegations.
"According to experts, it [the third energy package] violates WTO rules, in particular, the most-favored-nation treatment. This creates a dangerous precedent whereby international law is superseded by the European Union's internal rules," Matvienko told the Integration Club, hosted by the Federation Council, Russia's upper legislative house.
The last few years have seen an increase in non-transparent economic blocs, giving rise to a closed vertical integration model, Matvienko said, recalling Russia President Vladimir Putin's late October speech at the Valdai International Discussion Club. This process is coupled with the use of sanctions and restrictions, which are both unlawful and counterproductive, she added.
The EU's third energy package entered into force in late 2009, sparking disagreements between the European Union and Russia in 2014. The package, aimed at regulating the EU gas and electricity market, prohibits companies from both owning and operating a gas pipeline. The European Commission has said that Russia's South Stream gas pipeline into Europe would be in violation of the package.
In June 2014, The European Commission filed a request for Bulgaria to freeze the project. Construction was stopped within days. In December 2014 Putin announced that Moscow had ended its South Stream gas pipeline project.
