Russia Set to Avert EU Gas Crisis With Alerts Kremlin Also Suggests Softening on Kosovo

By Dan Bilefsky

Russia will propose a new rapid alert mechanism Friday to give Europe advance warning should Moscow cut off gas supplies during a supply crisis affecting the 27-member bloc, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union said Monday.

Speaking ahead of a Russia-EU summit in Mafra, Portugal, the ambassador, Vladimir Chizhov, said the alert system was meant to help restore Europe’s confidence in Russia as a reliable energy supplier. Russia is the biggest supplier of gas to the EU, most of which reaches the bloc through the Ukraine and Belarus.

“Russia has agreed to warn the EU if Gazprom decides to turn off the tap,” Chizhov said. Russians officials said the warning system would include a special telephone hotline between Brussels and the Kremlin. Moscow and Brussels would have to designate officials to be on call 24 hours a day in case of an energy supply crisis.

On another issue of conflict with the EU, he indicated Moscow’s position on the future of Kosovo may be softening and that the Kremlin could support an independent Kosovo if it were achieved as part of a negotiated settlement agreed to by both Serbs and ethnic Albanians.

“We would not like it, but we would not oppose it,” he said. “Our aim isn’t to be more Serb than the Serbs.”

The meeting Friday between the EU and Russia comes as relations between the world’s biggest country and the world’s biggest trading bloc are severely strained. Russia has refused to end an embargo on Polish farm exports, prompting Poland to retaliate against the Russian embargo by refusing to lift a veto that would allow negotiations over an EU-Russian partnership agreement governing trade, energy and human rights to continue.

There is also increasing alarm in Europe that Moscow is curtailing human rights and stamping out democracy ahead of parliamentary elections in December and a presidential vote next March.

In the field of energy, the EU wants to avoid a repeat of the events of late 2005, when the Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom cut gas supplies to the Ukraine in a pricing battle that led to shortages across the Continent. A dispute between Russia and Belarus last December and January also affected oil supplies to some European countries.

Chizhov said energy would figure prominently at the meeting Friday, where he said Russia would also voice its concerns with a new European Commission proposal to prevent Gazprom from taking over power networks in Europe. Under plans submitted by the commission, non-EU companies would be barred from owning a majority stake in gas pipelines or electricity power grids unless their home country signs a reciprocal agreement with the EU.

The proposal was contained in a package of measures designed to liberalize the European energy market, underlining European concern that Gazprom would buy up energy assets across the Continent.

Chizhov said Moscow was still studying the proposal – dubbed the “Gazprom clause” by many in Brussels – which he said showed it was the EU, not Moscow, that was using its energy resources for political ends. He said the proposal was a source of concern to the Kremlin and Gazprom, since “no matter how you look at it, the proposal does not comply with market principles.”

Turning to the negotiations over the future status of Kosovo, mediated by Moscow, Washington and the EU, Chizhov said he had been pleasantly surprised at the that fact that Belgrade and Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, were even talking to each other.

“Few people thought the troika would work,” he said, referring to the three nations mediating in the talks. “Even Condoleezza Rice has acknowledged it is not entirely a waste of time.”

The ethnic Albanian leadership in Kosovo has threatened to unilaterally declare independence after Dec. 10 if it cannot reach an agreement with Belgrade, which – with firm support from Russia – is willing to grant Kosovo greater autonomy over its own affairs but vehemently opposes independence from Serbia. In July, Moscow rejected a United Nations plan brokered by Martti Ahtisaari, a former president of Finland, that would have granted Kosovo supervised independence.

Chizhov emphasized that Moscow remained deeply concerned that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo could spur secessionist movements within Russia’s own borders as well as in the rest of the world.

Separately, he added his hope that elections Sunday in Poland would help improve relations between Moscow and the EU, which he said had been hampered by ex-communist states like Poland that hold historical grudges.

He expressed cautious optimism that the pro-EU party, Civic Platform, would prove more flexible than the outgoing government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski and his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, whom he referred to as a “twinocracy.”

“This twinocracy has led Poland into some tough moments with its EU partners with Russia used as an excuse. We hope the new government will be less stubborn. Things certainly can’t get much worse.”

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2007 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.