"The EU expansion which entails damage to us will, naturally, have some positive effects which are hard to estimate now. In any case our concern is rather great, Volsky said, speaking on Friday in Bucharest at the international economic forum. Taking part in the forum are representatives from 22 countries.
In the words of the RSPP head, the state of affairs in the European economics is far from excellent. "The exception is the newly admitted states which are on the stage of "catching up development" and show average rates of development from 3% to 5%. Last year fifteen old timers inside the EU had the GDP growth of less than 2% while the growth indicator for the world economy was 4.5% .
As the share of ten new EU member states makes up mere 5% of the aggregate GDP of the European Union, it is hardly possible to change economic dynamics," Volsky said.
He noted Europe's dependence on energy supplies from Russia.
"Many new members of the European Union are 90% or even more dependent on energy supplies from Russia and the EU itself receives 44% of gas from Russia," Volsky said. This figures do not fit into the norms established by the EU of supplies' diversification - not more than 25% from one source," Volsky said.
In his opinion, the energy dialogue between Russia and the EU could become the best venue for searches of solutions for this problem. "This project has been showing sluggish progress so far," Volsky said.
He believes that it is business that should tackle these issues. For instance, according to him, guarantees for the transportation of energy products is a highly topical theme of the energy dialogue for Russia.
"Brussels made it to understand now and again that it is business that should tackle the problems of building gas pipelines or the passage of oil tankers via some or other straits. This proves once again how important it is in new conditions to brisk up a dialogue between power structures, especially on a bilateral basis," Volsky said.
He called upon the unions of industrialists of all countries which joined the EU and which only intend to do this to become a bridge between the united Europe and Russia. In particular he called upon the countries which are joining the EU to give up the practice of renouncing bilateral trade agreements, which are outside the competence of the EU.
