FRIDAY NIGHT: Lahti informal EU summit culminates in "frank and open exchange of ideas" with President Putin, mainly on energy questions

Putin backs energy cooperation, voices fears of worsening situation in Georgia

print this

The heads of state and government of the 25 EU member states, accompanied by prospective members Bulgaria and Romania, met in Lahti today for a working lunch followed by an afternoon session at which the subjects discussed included energy matters, innovation and patents, and immigration policy.
      The initial talks were in part designed to firm up the EU's sometimes divided views on external energy relations prior to an informal dinner that was also attended by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.
     
At a press conference held after the dinner, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen (in his capacity as the current President of the European Council), the EU Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and President Putin commented briefly on the course of their talks over the diiner-table.
      Vanhanen stressed that the informal nature of the meeting had allowed for intensive discussions and that it had been very useful He described the talks as "open and frank and to the point", providing a welcome exchange of views on a broad range of themes. He also confirmed that the EU had in fact been able to speak with one voice on the issue of energy cooperation
      Energy was as expected among the main topics. Some current international issues were also touched upon, including North Korea and Iran. The murder in Moscow of the journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the extremely strained relations between Georgia and Russia were also raised, along with regional EU-Russian questions such as the Northern Dimension.
      Vanhanen was earlier reported to be delivering a message on behalf of the EU to President Putin about the Union's concerns over democracy and human rights in Russia.
     
President Putin emphasised the development of EU-Russian energy relations, and a strengthening of the strategic partnership between the EU and Russia, rooted in common values and common interests. This will be on the agenda when Mr. Putin returns to Finland for an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki in November.
      In Putin's view, the EU and Russia are natural partners in the energy field and the mutual dependence that exists can only be good for European energy security and for coming closer in other areas. He noted that the EU gets 44% of its gas from Russia, but that around 67% of Russian gas exports go to the EU 25, thus making Russia if anything more dependent on the European Union and its consumers than the other way around.
      Putin argued that energy cooperation between the two sides must be rooted in predictability of the energy markets and responsibility and security.
     
EU Commission President Barroso reiterated the idea of positive interdependency and the development of relations based on mutual trust arising out of transparency, the rule of law, reciprocity, non-discrimination, and market access, not simply in the energy field.
      This was perhaps a veiled reference to the concerns expressed by some governments recently that European energy investors may have been mistreated or discriminated against when trying to develop oil and gas resources in Russia.
      All parties appeared to regard the informal discussions they had in Lahti as a good platform from which to talk on a more official level in Helsinki on November 24th. There the EU and Russia must try to iron out a common approach on some tricky trade issues and particularly investment in oil and gas.
      Russia has thus far not signed up to the 1991 Energy Charter Treaty, but Mr. Putin left the door open to agreement on many of the charter's basic principles when talks begin next month.
     
Putin was not asked any questions from the floor about the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, a crime that has prompted widespread international comment on the state of human rights and freedom of the press in Russia, but he did speak at some length about the current dispute between Russia and Georgia, stressing that it was not essentially a matter between Moscow and Tbilisi so much as between Georgia and the Russian-backed breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
      He expressed the fear that matters might be heading towards disaster and bloodshed in the region as the Georgian administration seeks to restore its territorial integrity through military means.
      Putin urged the Georgian government to calm the situation down with regard to the two disputed areas. He also argued that Russia was not the villain of the piece, but that the discussion had been deliberately led astray, with the Georgians using the deterioration in relations with Moscow as a political tool to allow the use of arms.
      The EU's Secretary-General and foreign policy chief Javier Solana told journalists earlier that he had been talking to Russia and Georgia "practically on a daily basis" in an attempt to cool the situation and to persuade the leaders to talk to each other.
     
The one-day Lahti summit was accompanied by a number of small demonstrations, but they all passed off peacefully and there were no scenes comparable with those in Helsinki during the ASEM meeting last month.
      Traffic was disrupted for the arrival of the delegations, with the worst bottleneck occurring as expected at the junction of the Outer Ring Road (leading from Helsinki-Vantaa Airport) and the Lahti motorway. Matters were further complicated by the late arrival of the French delegation and Javier Solana, and heavy vehicles were re-routed to speed their passage.
      It was not expected that the return journeys of motorcades heading towards Helsinki would cause much disruption, as the delegations left for home in the late evening.
      Finnish President Tarja Halonen met Vladimir Putin at the airport and accompanied him to and from Lahti, and the two took the opportunity to hold informal bilateral talks while on the road.

More on this subject:
 European Union and Russian leaders meet at Lahti summit

Links:
  EU Presidency website (contains webcasts and transcripts of press conferences)

Helsingin Sanomat