EXTERNAL ENERGY RELATIONS (14011/06)
Letter from the Chairman to Lord Truscott,
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy, Department
of Trade and Industry
Sub-Committee B considered this document, and
your Explanatory Memorandum, at its meeting on 27 November 2006.
We share your endorsement of the Communication
as "a positive step in the right direction". In our
report, The Commission's Green Paper: A European Strategy for
Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy, we endorsed the
Commission's proposals on developing a coherent external energy
policy, and argued that "Such a framework, if properly defined,
will allow participants in energy markets across Europe to negotiate
with third parties in a manner consistent with the delivery of
the main policy objectives".
We would like to take this opportunity to remind
you that the Government's response to our report, published in
July, is now over two months overdue. Can you give us an indication
of when we can expect your response?
We are content to lift scrutiny on this document
and will await legislative proposals in 2007. We would appreciate
an update from you should any significant progress be made in
current talks on an EU-Russia energy deal.
30 November 2006
Letter from Lord Truscott to the Chairman
Thank you for your letter of 30 November, indicating
that the Committee is content to lift scrutiny on the above Commission
Communication.
On EU/Russia, Member States are still in the
process of agreeing the EU's negotiating mandate for the post-PCA
agreement. You may be interested to know that the second meeting
of the EU/Russia Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) on Energy
took place in Moscow on 8 December, just over a year after the
first such PPC which took place in London during the UK's EU Presidency.
We have yet to hear a formal report of the recent PPC, although
EU Member States had agreed to use the meeting to highlight a
number of key messages, including:
— the importance of level playing fields
for market access;
— the need for transparent, non-discriminatory
and reciprocal access to markets and energy infrastructure, including
pipelines;
— the need for cooperation to reflect
the full range of energy priorities including environmental aspects
of energy policy and addressing climate change; and
— the need for the post-PCA agreement
to provide a favourable framework to pave the way for creating
a stable, long-term energy relationship.
28 December 2006
Letter from the Chairman to Lord Truscott
Thank you for your letter of 28 December 2006,
which Sub-Committee B considered at is meeting on 15 January 2007.
We were grateful to you for your update on the
negotiations surrounding the post-PCA agreement with Russia, and
hope that any such agreement reflects the four priorities agreed
by Member States ahead of the second PPC meeting. We would be
grateful for a report of the meeting when it is available.
16 January 2007
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