A Common Russia-EU Energy Space: The New EU-Russia Partnership Agreement, Acquis Communautaire and the Energy Charter

It seems likely that the new Russia-EU Partnership Agreement (replacing the previous Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between the two parties) will contain an energy chapter. The architecture of the chapter is still to be determined and the previous PCA 1994 did not include an energy chapter. This article outlines the principles and legal framework for such a common energy space. It considers three different options. The first avenue (clearly preferred by the European Union) is to export the Union's emerging acquis communautaire (ie, the common internal legislation of the enlarging European Union) to the countries outside the Union. The second avenue is to prepare a new bilateral Russia-EU Partnership Agreement, either 'on the basis of the Energy Charter principles' or a totally new agreement. This option has been preferred by Russian authorities, but is also considered as a possible avenue for moving forward by some EU officials and even indirectly by the European Union as a whole. But there is also a third way, which is to use the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) itself as the basis for such a framework. This approach may be practical in spite of Russian concerns as to the unbalanced character of the ECT and the possibility of interpreting some of its provisions to the detriment of energy producers. This article argues that the first two avenues are counter-productive. The third avenue presents the most (if not the only) effective practical way to create a mutually beneficial legal framework for the common Russia-EU energy space (if fair and well-substantiated concerns of both parties are addressed to the mutual benefit of the whole multilateral ECT community). The option takes advantage of a multilateral legal foundation that has already been in force for more than ten years.