G8 leaders must sign up to principles on energy security and renew their commitment to fight climate change and help Africa at a meeting this weekend, the head of the European Union executive said today.
Russia has put energy security at the top of the agenda of the Group of Eight leaders of the world's big industrial nations in St. Petersburg on July 15-17th, along with education and efforts to combat infectious diseases.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the leaders should agree principles that cover the full "energy chain" of producing, transit and consumer countries.
The 25-nation EU is dependent on Russia for 25 per cent of its gas needs and has intensified its search for new sources of energy since Moscow's pricing dispute with Ukraine in January disrupted gas supplies to Europe.
Mr Barroso reiterated the EU call for Russia, which hosts the G8 meeting for the first time, to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, which promotes price transparency and free energy transit across the Eurasian continent.
But he said he would welcome Moscow's support with other G8 nations of the principles that mirror the ones in the treaty, including transparency, reciprocity and openness in international energy markets. "I believe that if the G8 leaders agree on those principles that, by and large are the same as are in the Energy Charter Treaty, that could be a very good thing," he told a news conference on Tuesday.
Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador to the EU, told reporters his country supported transparency and openness but that they were not limited to the EU-Russia energy relationship. "Of course, these principles should be among those guiding the global energy sector," he told a news briefing.
Mr Barroso made clear that the two issues that topped last year's agenda under Britain's presidency of the G8, climate change and aid to Africa, must not be forgotten.
The EU proposed to set up a €3 billion fund to promote good governance in Africa, he said, and G8 leaders would back the commitments they made last year when they called climate change "a serious and long-term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the planet".
Environmentalists fear global warming has fallen to the back burner under Russia's leadership of the G8 as members focus more on securing energy supplies.
"We will use the meeting at St. Petersburg to renew the commitments we made together last year on climate change," Mr Barroso told the news conference. "G8 members will reinforce our cooperation in many other key sectors of the energy chain from renewables to energy efficiency (and) clean energy technologies," he said