§ Lord Joplingasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the European Union has any fixed rules regarding the degree of dependence, in percentage terms, of any European Union member state on energy resources from any one source; and, if so, how this will affect the candidature for membership of the European Union of those countries which are heavily dependent on Russia for their energy supplies. [HL5717]
§ Lord Sainsbury of TurvilleThe European Union does not have rules regarding the degree of dependence, whether in percentage or any other terms, of any EU member state on energy resources from a single country source. From this it follows that candidate countries for EU membership will not be restricted in the extent to which they import their energy supplies from Russia or from any other producer country. However, under a policy administered by the Euratom Supply Agency, the 249WA EU's nuclear utilities are expected to contract with Russia for no more than some 20 per cent of their natural uranium and enrichment requirements. The aim is to ensure a diversification of sources of supply so that the EU does not become over-dependent on any single source of supply.
Nevertheless, under Euratom treaty provisions, agreements or contracts for the supply of nuclear fuel to candidate countries in existence at the time of accession will not be prevented from being implemented provided that they are communicated to the European Commission. The European Commission has made known its intention to submit a Communication to the Council incorporating a mandate for negotiating an agreement with Russia on trade in nuclear materials. We understand that one of the factors under consideration will be the position of the candidate countries as a number of them are believed to be fixed to uranium supply contracts with Russia that exceed the EU's existing limits.