EU to tackle Putin over gas fears
- October 13th, 2006
- Posted by 7thmin
Heads of Government of the 25 EU countries called to an “informal” Summit (Friday 20.10.06), will be dealing with a list of their more urgent concerns this Autumn, including security of Europe’s energy supplies.
A topics list for the gathering, at Lahti in Finland, includes a “response to the growing dependence on energy imports”, a reference especially to European anxiety over the reliability of gas supplies from Russia.
In fact the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, as one of Finland’s neighbours is expected to join the heads of government at the end of their one-day session, for dinner and a chat, about “strategic parttnership” matters – including energy.
Other topics for the gathering: Immigration in Europe, against thre backdrop of a new wave of illegal migrants arriving by boat in Italy, Greece and Spain; the accession to membership of the EU, of Bulgaria and Romania, (qualified by undertakings of further action against official corruption and organised crime); and the crisis in Darfour – an event where hundreds of thousands of deaths have yet to be labelled “genocide” by the European Union.
The “informal” one-day gathering was scheduled ahead of a regular bi-annual event expected later in the year.