Brussels, 04/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) on Energy held its first ever meeting in London on 3 October. Its key objective was to give additional political impetus to EU - Russia energy cooperation. The PPC described energy as a crucial part of the relationship between Russia and the EU, and discussed ways of deepening their engagement. The Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) is a standard forum for discussing EU-Russia affairs. It consists of Ministers from Russia, the EU Presidency, the incoming EU Presidency and a European Commissioner. The PPC was chaired by Alan Johnson, UK Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. The European Commission was represented by Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. Energy Minister Viktor Krishtenko led the Russian delegation. The energy issue is particularly important in the context of climate change and high oil prices. Russia has been a major supplier of energy to the European Union for many years and the EU continues to be a very important market for Russian energy exports.
The PPC agreed that energy was rising up agendas around the world at the moment. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita showed the importance of secure and diverse energy supplies. The PPC also recognised the impact on energy security of an increasing demand for energy and the need to increase energy efficiency in order to tackle climate change. Reliable energy supply and demand was vital for the economic development of Russia and the EU and increased the chances of peace and prosperity in this century. The PPC welcomed Russia's intention to make energy security a priority of its forthcoming G8 presidency. The PPC also discussed a raft of international issues, including climate change and the Kyoto Protocol, the Energy Charter Treaty, and the International Atomic Energy Agency and stressed the value of international cooperation on these issues.
The PPC welcomes and reinforces politically the progress achieved until now through the EU-Russia Energy Dialogue and contributes to the implementation of the Road Map for the Common Economic Space between the EU and Russia, agreed in May. It draws upon the work of four thematic groups of experts from all interested parties - the EU and Russian authorities, and EU and Russian business. These four groups have been working for the last few months to come up with concrete steps to further promote in practical terms the energy relationship. The PPC agreed that the deeper involvement of business and Member states had made a significant contribution to the dialogue. The PPC approved the preliminary results of their work, for example to look at the regulatory framework and incentives to improve energy efficiency.
The environment defence group WWF commented: 'By joining forces towards non-carbon energy, the EU and Russia could significantly contribute to the reduction of global greenhouse gas emissions, thus combatting climate change. However, the agenda of this Summit, as well as the overall priorities of the EU-Russian energy relations, seems to have gone back to the 1970s, when the entire debate was geared towards oil, gas and nuclear and supply pipelines… Renewable energy can bring massive economic benefits as well as climate protection to Russia, but the Russian government has not understood this thus far…It is patricianly surprising that the EU is so silent on renewable energy when talking to Russia, while this is not the case with countries like China. The results of the PPC will be presented to the EU-Russia Summit on 4 October.'