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To: long-gone who wrote (19805)	9/25/1998 9:35:00 PM
From: goldsnow	Respond to of 116861

Would not you know.. EU energy chief urges more EU investment in Russia 08:06 a.m. Sep 24, 1998 Eastern BRUSSELS, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The European Union's chief energy official said on Thursday EU aid to Russia, a major EU energy supplier, should focus more directly on promoting Western investment in the Russian energy sector. ''One of the main areas for cooperation with Russian in future will be the energy sector. I believe we need to reorientate (EU aid),'' European Energy Commissioner Christos Papoutsis told Reuters. The Commissioner was speaking in the margins of a high-level conference in Brussels on energy reform in eastern Europe. He earlier told the conference: ''We need to rethink the nature of our relations with Russia. They should develop towards economic cooperation based on mutual benefits instead of one-sided technical assistance.'' ''What we're trying to make the Russians understand is that they need to start thinking about strategic sectors,'' Papoutsis's spokesman Costas Verros told Reuters. ''It's all very well for us to provide technical assistance -- know how -- in the early stages. But now the Russians need to put their house in order and create a proper legal framework so that Western companies can start real cooperation with them on concrete projects like intrastructure, power stations, clean coal technology and so on,'' Verros said. Pablo Benavides, Papoutsis's second in command, said the Commissioner also wanted to see more of the aid the EU allocates to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe -- namely to ease their transition to a market economy and EU membership -- directed towards encouraging foreign direct investment. He said the Commissioner was garnering increasing support from the European Parliament and EU governments for that switch. The 15-nation EU plans to devote an annual three billion ecus a year ($3.5 billion) to the former Soviet Bloc between 2000 and 2006 through its Tacis and Phare programmes. (1 ecu - $1.1668) ((Gillian Handyside. Brussels Newsroom +32 2 287 6830, fax +32 2 230 5573, brussels.newsroom+reuters.com)) Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited.