Interfax's Interview

 "The package of initiatives itself in its original form surely affects our interests because it, in particular, contains provisions on restricting involvement of investors from third countries in relevant sectors of the EU energy industry. I would like to repeat that, at first sight, the package does not fit with what are called market economy principles,"  he said.

 "It [the draft directive] does not contain the word Russia or the word Gazprom. This is related to all third countries, although it is clear that Gazprom and other Russian companies, as key suppliers of energy resources to the EU, could be among the most affected ones," he said.

 The EU's new initiatives in the energy sector will be among the key subjects for negotiations at the summit in Mafra, Chizhov said. "But it will be too early to make some conclusions at the summit, because this process is quite lengthy anyway," Chizhov said.

 The document includes a package of initiatives that need to be passed through the European Union Council, then through its working groups, and then through the European Parliament, Chizhov said. "Therefore it would be premature to say what the final version of this package will be, because already, in its original form, it has drawn mixed comments from both EU countries, and the parliament, and especially European energy businesses. There is a lot of discontent," Chizhov said.

 "This doesn't mean that the draft directive will die, but it will be transformed," Chizhov said.

 "It is very important that this process should proceed transparently, and we welcome the European Commission's preparedness for a conversation with us on this account," he said.

 As far as U.S. missile defense plans are concerned,  the Russian diplomat said that The European Union was concerned about the U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Europe, but the negotiations the Czech Republic and Poland have with the EU on this issue caused doubts on the efficiency of the common European foreign policy.

 "In the center of Europe, or you can also safely say in the center of the European Union, two EU member-states enter into negotiations with a third country, which is not a European Union member, on such a sensitive issue as missile defense without any consultations and without any discussions on this issue within the European Union. This looks not just strange, but it casts doubts on the efficiency of the European Union's common foreign policy," Chizhov said.

 Chizhov pointed out that the EU had declared a common foreign policy. "In some issues it is evident and in others not. There are issues on which the EU doesn't have a common position. This is very well known. For instance the EU could not have had a common position on Iraq in 2003," he said.

 Elaborating on the EU concern about the U.S. missile defense plans, Chizhov said, "An Austrian journalist recently formulated this concern in a very unusual way by asking a question that sounded roughly as follows: 'In case missiles are deployed, Russia will take retaliatory measures. Will Russia consider the European Union as a whole? After all, Austria is a neutral country'."

 Chizhov said he answered to this that, hopefully, "the matter will not go as far as considering this problem in practical terms, and this will depend, among other things, on the European Union and on whether it distances itself from these plans or even makes efforts to prevent their implementation."

 "Poland has just held elections. The government reflects the people's will," Chizhov said.

 "But it is clear that most Poles, as well as most Czechs, are against these plans. There is no need to persuade people in the districts where [the deployment of missile defense elements] is planned. People there object to these plans," Chizhov said.

 "Let's see what happens next. Frankly speaking, I have not yet had the chance to read the program documents of the Civic Platform party, which has won in Poland. However, as far as I understand, its position on this issue is different from that of the previous government," he said.

 Concerning the visa issue,  Chizhov said that Russia was negotiating the introduction of a special category of visas for facilitated trans-border crossings with the European Union.

 "Bearing in mind the Kaliningrad region's geographical location, there are quite a lot of trans-border crossings there, which are, so to speak, local in their nature. We are trying to resolve this problem with the European Union. It is a subject for discussion," Chizhov said.

 "The matter implies the expected formalization by the European Union of the L (local) category of visas, which would facilitate the crossing of the border within a certain zone or strip, whose width should be subject to agreement. As for the common visa regulations, all Russian citizens are equal. Naturally, making the Kaliningrad region residents a special category of Russian citizens is not under consideration. This would be against the constitution," he said.

 Five years ago, Russia took care of transit trips between the Kaliningrad region and the rest of its territory, Chizhov said. "A mechanism of a facilitated transit document and a simplified document for railroad trips was developed then. We obtained confirmation from the European Commission that this special unique procedure would also remain in place after Lithuania and Poland join the Schengen Area, and the European Union's budget for the period up to 2013 envisions spending on maintaining this system. As regards transit, everything necessary was done," Chizhov said.

 Concerning the problem of Russia-Poland relations he declared that Russia expected that, with a new government in Poland, all issues between Moscow and Warsaw, including the so-called Polish meat export problem, would  be resolved.

 "It would be naive to expect that all problems would be resolved before the summit in Portugal. As for the following period, I hope that the new Polish authorities will have more common sense than the previous ones and we would be able to resolve all the remaining problems at a level and in a format they deserve," Chizhov said.

 "If we talk about meat, then this is definitely be at a technical and expert level. Since we have always perceived this problem as technical one and as a problem of providing healthy food to Russian citizens, we have never artificially politicized this issue. But Poland unfortunately did. This is why we still do not have a solution," he said.
 Asked whether practical agreements could be hammered out by the end of this year, Chizhov replied, "I never try to guess what can happen and when, but there is still some time before the end of the year. As far as I understand, our specialists do not lack preparedness and desire to solve this problem as soon as possible."

 In comments on a remark by a Polish deputy agriculture minister that, as long as Russia keeps its embargo on imports of Polish agricultural products, Poland will be blocking not only the start of negotiations on a new partnership and cooperation agreement between Russia and the EU but also Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Chizhov said he viewed this as "just another manifestation of groundless politicization of this problem."

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