Interfax: Moscow concerned by EU demand to bring South Stream agreements in line with Third Energy Package – Lavrov

(Interfax – February 3, 2014) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed concern over statements by European Union representatives that inter-governmental agreements between Russia and South Stream project participants should be brought in line with the requirements of the Third Energy Package.

“We are bewildered and concerned by Brussels’ statements about the need to review the intergovernmental agreements between Russia and the countries participating in the South Stream project, including Serbia, with the aim to bring them in line with the provisions of the EU Third Energy Package,” Lavrov said in an interview with the Serbian newspaper Politika, a transcript of which was posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website on Monday.

“Obviously, the EU laws must not be applied retrospectively and obstruct the performance of the bilateral agreements reached earlier,” the minister said.

“The said agreements are an integral part of international law and cannot be reviewed unilaterally,” Lavrov said.

Russia is in an active dialogue with the European Commission over the provision of necessary exclusions from the Third Energy Package, he also said.

“We have proposed that the EU sign special bilateral agreement to regulate the functioning of transborder energy infrastructure. For this purpose, we have drafted the appropriate document and passed it on to the EU,” Lavrov said.