Brussels, 15/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - European Commission sources confirmed on Tuesday that at the EU-Russia summit, there would be no signing of the agreement on flights over Siberia. This was supposed to take place on 18 May at the Samara summit, but the signing had to be postponed at the request of the Russian transport minister. In a letter sent to the Commission vice president for transport, Jacques Barrot on 18 May, the Russian transport minister, Igor Levitin affirmed that he wanted this agreement negotiated between the two parties in November 2006 to be implemented, but admitted that they were unable to complete the internal ratification process. The agreement negotiated and initialled by Mr Barrot and Mt Levitin in November 2006 (EUROPE 9314 and 9393) was supposed to put an end by 1 January 2014 to the system of surcharges paid by European companies flying over Siberian territory. The Commission affirmed that “this issue has to be resolved before Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation” and it therefore hoped that a signing of the agreement could rapidly be achieved before the end of the year. (aby)