BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

01/08/2007

EU calls on Russia and Belarus to swiftly solve gas dispute

(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission on Wednesday urged Moscow and Minsk to act swiftly to resolve a dispute in which Russia is threatening to slash gas supplies to Belarus, a key transit country for EU supplies.

"We take these developments very seriously," said martin Selmayr, spokesman for the EU's executive arm.

"We call on both parties to solve the issue amicably without delay," he added.

Russia said earlier that it would reduce gas supplies to Belarus by 45 percent from Friday unless bills for this year were paid, but sought to reassure European customers on supplies.

Belarus is a key transit country for Russian oil and gas supplies to western Europe. About 20 percent of Russian gas imports to European Union nations transit through Belarus, mainly to Poland, Germany and Lithuania.

A dispute over prices led to disruptions in oil supplies to several European countries earlier this year.

A similar dispute over gas prices with Ukraine, another key transit country, last year prompted cut-offs to western Europe and a wide debate about Europe's increasing reliance on Russian energy imports.

Selmayr said Brussels was closely monitoring the situation and would call a meeting of the Gas Coordination group on the matter next week if necessary.

The group is chaired by the Commission and composed of representatives of EU member states, representative bodies of the industry concerned and of relevant consumers. It deals with measures to safeguard security of natural gas supplies.

The EU Commission also invited Russia and Belarus to make use of the provisions of the Energy Charter Treaty, which was set up at the end of the Cold War to strengthen the rule of law on energy issues and integrate the energy sectors of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe into the broader European and world markets.

Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom said in a statement that it had informed its European partners about the planned cut-offs and added that Belarus "is obliged to guarantee the unobstructed transit of Russian gas to third countries."

Source:

http://www.eubusiness.com/news_live/1185969614.95