EU and Russia eye gas cut-off "early-warning" deal in November

Oct 19, 2009, 13:42 GMT

Brussels - The European Union and Russia want to set up an alarm system to warn of future gas and oil cut-offs at a summit in November, top officials in Brussels said Monday.

Supplies of Russian gas to Europe have been cut off in the depth of winter twice in the last four years because of rows between Russia and Ukraine, the main transit state for westward-bound gas. 

The EU and Russia hope to sign a number of accords when they meet for a summit in Stockholm on November 18, and 'the most important would certainly be the early-warning mechanism on energy,' EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

Such a system would cover oil, gas and electricity supplies. It would allow the parties to notify one another of impending cut-offs, consult on the best way to deal with them and then make sure that solutions were implemented as agreed, she said.

The EU and Russia still have to finalize the details of a deal, but they hope to do so in time for the summit.

'We do see possibilities to sign it,' Ferrero-Waldner said.

The EU's executive, the European Commission, proposed the early-warning system after this January's row over gas supplies between Russia and Ukraine, which resulted in two weeks of gas shortages in Eastern Europe.

The EU is keen to avoid further shut-offs to its member states, while Russia wants to shake off the impression that it is using its energy reserves to put political pressure on its neighbours.

Lavrov said that it was 'very important' to set up the early-warning mechanism to include transit countries.

'The break in supplies occurred in the territory of a transit country,' he stressed. Russia has always said that Ukraine was to blame for the recent cut-off and a similar one in 2006.

'We can guarantee that all our contractual obligations with regard to supplies to Europe will be met (...) We will take all the necessary measures to make sure this is not repeated,' Lavrov said.

Russia is the EU's single most important supplier of fuel, but EU member states have repeatedly accused the Eastern giant of manipulating its energy flows to put pressure on apparently hostile governments in the neighbourhood.

Russia's energy rows have been most acute with the pro-Western government in Ukraine, but EU members Latvia and Lithuania also say that Russia has cut off fuel supplies to and through their territories at times of political tension.