The EU’s Third Energy Package is causing problems for Russia’s cooperation with Europe and Russia will have to take retaliatory measures, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday.
The third package of legislative proposals for Europe’s electricity and gas markets stipulates the assurance of consumer choice, fairer prices, cleaner energy and security of supply.
The Third Package for Electricity and Gas markets was adopted on September 19, 2007. The package was to be implemented by March of this year; however, not all EU member states have met the deadline.
It aims to separate production and supply from transmission networks, facilitate cross-border trade in energy, more effective national regulators, and promote cross-border collaboration and investment, greater market transparency on network operation and supply, as well as increased solidarity among the EU countries.
It particularly affects the operation of vertically integrated companies such as Russian state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom.
Medvedev said he and his colleagues had repeatedly queried the EU on “the consequences of the direct implementation of these rules.”
“A number of developments have occurred recently that will cause problems for gas cooperation,” he said.
“I am referring to the regulatory basis, contracts, and organization.”
Medvedev asked Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller to submit proposals on how Russia should build its relations with the EU in the context of the Third Energy Package.
