BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

29/12/2006

Germany's Merkel says Europe must speak with one voice on energy

The Associated Press

BERLIN: Europe must speak with one voice on energy policy and pursue new sources of energy, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday as Germany prepares to take over the European Union presidency.

Russia is threatening to cut off gas deliveries to Belarus on New Year's Day amid a price dispute, reviving memories of a Russian cutoff last winter to Ukraine that briefly slowed the flow of gas to Western Europe and raised questions about Russia's reliability as an energy supplier.

"Europe must reduce its dependence in order to guarantee its energy supplies in the long term," Merkel wrote in an article for the daily Handelsblatt. "Moreover, it must speak with one voice on foreign energy relations. This also goes for relations with our important energy partner Russia."

The EU will negotiate a new cooperation agreement with Moscow containing "an ambitious section on energy" after Germany takes over the rotating presidency from Finland on Jan. 1, Merkel said. She also argued that more emphasis should be put on energy research - a topic to be addressed at an EU summit in March.

"The essential foundation for our economic development, and therefore for our prosperity, is a dependable, competitive and environmentally friendly supply of energy," Merkel said. She did not refer specifically to the current dispute between Russia and Belarus.

Germany, she vowed, would make climate protection and other environmental concerns priorities as it develops new energy policies.

"In the area of energy efficiency and renewable energy, all potential has not been tapped yet," she wrote. Diversification, she argued, is needed above all for "reasons of political peace and security ... because the oil and gas reserves will be concentrated in only a few countries in the future."

Merkel also said Germany would push energy and climate protection as priorities when it takes over the chair of Group of Eight, also on Jan. 1.

Source:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/12/29/europe/EU_GEN_Germany_EU_Energy.php