POLAND: Poland will threaten to veto the start of talks on a new EU co-operation pact with Russia today unless Moscow agrees to liberalise its oil and gas sector first.
Warsaw's hard-line stance on the proposed strategic partnership agreement puts it in conflict with its EU partners, which are keen to get a deal ahead of an EU-Russia summit on November 24th in Finland. However, simmering tensions over a Russian ban on Polish meat and vegetable imports and a gas pipeline deal between Berlin and Moscow have irked Poland over what it perceives as the EU's weak policy on Russia.
Piotr Wozniak, Poland's minister for economy, said Poland would insist that Russia ratify all parts of an energy charter treaty that it signed in 1994 as part of the discussions on a new EU-Russia strategic partnership deal. He said this was necessary to ensure that there was easy access to Russian gas and oil, following events in January this year when Russia temporarily cut off gas supplies to some EU states.
Russia has consistently refused to ratify those parts of the existing EU-Russia energy charter dealing with the liberalisation of its gas and oil pipelines. At a summit in Finland last month, President Vladimir Putin said he would consider placing energy at the centre of the next EU strategic partnership deal but did not clarify whether he was willing to liberalise the vast gas and oil pipeline infrastructure that transits Russia.
"We feel very unsafe about energy supplies in Europe," said Mr Wozniak, who added that Poland's chemical industry had to shut down for three weeks after the Ukraine-Russia dispute in January that led to a temporary loss of some gas supplies to Poland.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Brussels today to discuss the mandate for talks on the new Russia-EU strategic partnership agreement. It remains unclear whether Warsaw can be persuaded to drop its threat to veto the start of talks on an agreement.
One EU diplomat said he thought Poland could use the veto threat to try to wrest some political backing from its EU partners to pressure Russia over the ban on meat and vegetable imports.
Meanwhile, Mr Wozniak also signalled that Poland could become the latest EU country to turn to nuclear power to reduce its dependence on Russia energy supplies. Poland, which currently does not have any nuclear power plants, will begin a public consultation on nuclear energy early next year, he said.