Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

A number of countries have bilateral agreements with Russia. This is one of the difficulties. As Deputy Allen is aware, the EU-Russia agreement runs out at the end of November. Because of the Polish difficulties, which I understand, it was not possible to conclude those negotiations and form a new EU-Russia agreement prior to the last EU-Russia Summit. Having spoken to the President of Poland on his visit to this country, I believe there is some movement but I am not sure it will be possible to conclude a new agreement in the coming months. There is provision in the agreement for a roll-over of the existing agreement after November 2007.

Most members of the European Union take the view that if we do not have an EU-Russia agreement, we will have a proliferation of individual bilateral agreements which would be mad. Having been asked by a number of colleagues to lobby on this issue, I urged the President of Poland on his visit to this country to move and make an agreement. That will be reiterated to him again on Sunday. It would be preferable to avoid everyone paddling their own canoes in this regard and, ultimately, it would be going against what we have just done, to have a comprehensive energy policy. To do that, we need a strong EU-Russia agreement. It is important that is done before the end of November.

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