Brussels, 07/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Ahead of the European Council of this Thursday and Friday, the Polish and Lithuanian heads of government, Jaroslaw Kaczynski and Gediminas Kirkilas respectively, have sent a joint letter to the president of the European Council, the German chancellor Angela Merkel, stressing the “importance of developing a unanimous energy policy for the Union, allowing it to speak with a single voice”. Amongst other things, the letter sent by Mr Kaczynski and Mr Kirkilas stresses the need to create alternative sources of energy supply, as well as energy interconnections. Underlining the problem of dependence on a single gas supplier, the Polish and Lithuanian prime ministers announced their decision to launch a feasibility study into the construction of connections between the gas supply networks of their two countries. Mr Kaczynski and Mr Kirkilas also point out that “in the face of possible energy supply crises, the solidarity between EU states should become one of the most important goals of the common EU energy policy”. They stress the necessity of resolving the issue of interruptions to supplies of Russian oil via the Dhruzba pipeline to the Mazeikiu nafta refinery by “joint efforts from both the EU and Russia”, as this is an “EU-wide problem”.
The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, who will hold a meeting with the Polish president Lech Kaczynski in Brussels this Thursday, just before the summit, stated on Wednesday that Poland has every right to demand the “full solidarity” of the whole of the EU in energy matters (particularly towards Moscow), but that at the same time, the Polish government should also show solidarity with the EU on resolving the constitutional issue. “Solidarity is not a one-way street”, he told a small group of journalists. “If, in the debate on the Constitution, Poland should challenge the double majority system (for decisions taken by the Council, as the foreign affairs minister has already stated, EUROPE 9379) to return to the system laid down in the Nice Treaty, then we will have a problem”, warned Mr Pöttering. (eh/hb)