MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - A top Russian senator said difficulties in addressing energy issues will dominate the Russia-EU summit which opens in the Far East city of Khabarovsk on Thursday.
"There will be the predictable difficulties in negotiations on energy issues," Mikhail Margelov, chairman of the Russian upper house's international affairs committee, told RIA Novosti.
Margelov said the EU has been conducting a total liberalization of the energy industry, whereas Russia, like many other hydrocarbon producers, is reluctant to weaken state control over the production and transportation of oil and gas.
"This is, if you will, a global collision in strategy, and it will inevitably come up at the Khabarovsk talks," he said.
Margelov said he was certain that Russia would once again be unable to reach an agreement on the existing Energy Charter but would propose alternatives that would avoid demands for Russia's pipeline network to be opened up.
Russia has signed but not ratified the European Energy Charter (1991), over concerns that the charter would lead to the EU demanding that Russia demonopolize its oil and gas pipelines. Russia-EU negotiations on the Energy Charter have been ongoing since January 2000.
"I am also convinced that Russia will not join the Ukraine-EU declaration on modernizing the Ukrainian gas transportation system, but will propose its own variant for the upgrading involving a wider international consortium," the Russian senator said.
On March 23, Ukraine and the EU signed, after an international Brussels conference, a joint declaration on modernizing Ukraine's gas transportation system. Kiev and Brussels virtually excluded Russia from discussions, which caused a sharp response from Russian authorities.
Earlier Russia's envoy to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said the global financial crisis as well as European energy and security issues will be the focus at the upcoming Russia-EU summit.
He said the Russian delegation at the meeting in Khabarovsk, scheduled for May 21-22, will be led by President Dmitry Medvedev and include several cabinet ministers.
The EU will be represented by Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU rotating presidency, along with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Marc Franco, chief of the European Commission in Russia, told RIA Novosti on Wednesday that energy and the financial crisis will be the focus of summit.
He also said Russia and the EU will discuss the negotiating process on a new cooperation deal due to replace the 1997 Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which was extended for a year when it expired in December 2007.
Talks on a new deal have been repeatedly delayed, initially by Poland and Lithuania and most recently over Russia's August conflict with Georgia over South Ossetia.
