Brussels, 06/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting in Rome on 6 May, the energy ministers from the G7 (Germany, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the USA and UK) confirmed the support of the most industrialised countries to Ukraine for its supplies “should the situation be critical”, said Italy's Minister for Economic Development Federica Guidi, who was hosting the meeting.
“Energy should not be used as a means of political coercion”, the ministers agreed in a final press release, summing up the work of their two-day meeting. “We are extremely concerned by the energy security implications of developments in Ukraine, as a consequence of Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity”, they stated. “We remain united in our determination to provide various types of assistance that Ukraine needs to strengthen its energy security”, the ministers added. The press release also states that the G7 countries are ready to work to complete the European Commission's efforts to develop emergency energy plans for winter 2014-2015.
Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian crisis and the EU's security of supply (50% of the EU's Russian gas supply transits through Ukraine), the G7 Energy meeting - which was joined by European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger - also agreed on the need to develop a medium-term strategy to diversify the sources and channels of supply. Not only this, however - in order to accelerate the transition towards a low carbon economy, through more energy savings and strong support for renewable energy, it is also about diversifying clean technology.
As well as the Ukrainian crisis, the G7 Energy meeting “also has the merit of having written the issue of energy security into the wider problem of the global fight against climate warming”, said France's Minister for Ecology and Energy Ségolène Royal. “Despite different energy models, we have managed to agree to share what we do best in each country”, she said.
“This is the start of a disarmament process, to disarm Russia from the possibility of using energy as a weapon, which is unacceptable”, said UK Secretary of State for Energy Ed Davey at the end of the meeting. He nevertheless recognised that this new strategy will take “a significant amount of time” to be developed.
The G7 countries agreed on closer relations with the US and Canada for exports of shale gas in the form of LNG in order to compensate for Russian supplies in the future, Guidi stated. She underlined the “strategic importance” for her country, however, of the South Stream gas pipeline, which will transport Russian gas to Europe, by-passing Ukraine. (EH)