The European Union should consult with Russia on energy development issues to avoid conflicts, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Friday.
"I believe it reasonable that new and fair rules in such a sensitive area should be worked out by our EU colleagues and in the European Commission at least in consultation with Russia as a major energy supplier," Putin told an economic forum, adding the adjustments should be gradual and evolutionary and not harmful to existing systems which are working well.
"Otherwise, we will keep facing absurd situations or conflicts appearing out of nowhere," he said.
Russia provides some 31 percent of Europe's gas imports, 27 percent of its oil supplies and 24 of coal supplies. It also provides the overwhelming majority of uranium used in Europe.
Europe, in the process of liberalizing its energy market, has demanded that gas production and transportation should be separated and third parties should have access to infrastructure such as pipelines.
That has drawn criticism from Russia's Gazprom which produces gas, owns all the country's major gas pipelines and sells the fuel. Gazprom has said the EU plan hinders further investment in pipelines it had built, but which are now supposed to be open to other firms.
The EU this month criticized a Russian-Bulgarian agreement on the South Stream gas pipeline project, which stipulates construction of a 300-kilometer pipeline from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to Alexandroupolis on the Greek Aegean Sea coast, saying it should be changed so that other EU states have access.
Poland's Gaz-System company, which operates the Polish stretch of the Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, plans to admit third parties to the system as soon as the second quarter of 2011 to meet EU legislation. Gazprom has said the pipeline would not have free capacity in 2011.
BERLIN, November 26 (RIA Novosti)
