EU-Russia agreement in the doldrums[fr][de] 

Following the talks in Moscow on 5 February 2007 with EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Javier Solana and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Russia still refuses to give EU investors better access to deposits and pipelines for oil and gas.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said: "We don't reject the principles of the energy charter. However, some of its mechanisms related to transit and investment are unacceptable for us." The international energy treaty intends to regulate transit and investment in the energy sector, but would also allow for increased competition between foreign and independent companies.

The EU seeks to include rules on energy trading into a renewed EU-Russia partnership and co-operation agreement (PCA), in order to secure its energy supplies, of which roughly a quarter comes from Russia. A new PCA has been vetoed by Poland, who insists that Russia drop its ban on Polish meat and ratify the energy charter first.

The idea to set up a "gas-OPEC", put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, was dismissed by Qatar. Energy Minister Abdallah Ben Hamad Al-Attiyah declared that such an organisation, a cartel reuniting gas-exporting countries, woud not happen as "gas is different from petrol".