"Our cooperation will be based on agreements we signed at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. There is no need to form supranational bodies," Sergei Lavrov said at a news conference following his meeting in Moscow with top European Union officials to discuss a new cooperation deal with the EU.
Russia and the EU were set to begin talks on a new cooperation deal at the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki November 24 last year, but the negotiations were vetoed by Poland over Russia's ban on its meat exports and Moscow's refusal to sign the Energy Charter.
Russia has been unwilling to ratify the charter, which was drawn up as a mechanism of cooperation between Western and Eastern Europe on energy issues and signed at The Hague in 1991, as the document would force it to grant foreign investors free access to the country's oil and gas deposits and export pipelines.
Lavrov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been repeatedly saying that Russia does not oppose the main provisions of the Energy Charter and observes them, but the minister said some of the mechanisms in the charter, particularly those regulating investments and transit, are unacceptable to Russia.
The minister added that sanctions could be used by Energy Charter members against countries that hamper the transit of Russian energy resources to Europe.
"Some Energy Charter countries are placing obstacles in the way of Russian energy supplies. Therefore, other parties to this treaty could impose sanctions as a disciplinary measure against those countries," Lavrov said.
