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On 28 March, GMF hosted Iain Conn, Chief Executive for Refining and Marketing and Group Managing Director, BP, for a presentation and discussion on the policy choices facing Europe in the world of energy. Angela Stent, Professor of Government and Foreign Service and Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies in the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, provided comments and additional points on the outlook for Russian-European energy relations. The discussion was moderated by Ivan Vejvoda, Vice President for Programs at GMF.
Conn’s presentation stressed the importance of the EU energy policy debate having a ‘sense of realism’ and emphasized that the ‘responsibilities of choice are huge … Europe cannot solve this equation alone’. In this context, he focused on Europe’s external energy relations, with particular attention to Russia, China, and the transatlantic relationship. He stated that Europe must embrace and engage with Russia, speak as one voice when negotiating with China, and focus on policy alignment with the United States because the strength of such alignment ‘would make it impossible for others not to follow’. Comments by Stent reiterated the importance of Europe’s engagement with Russia, particularly as a means of avoiding future political, economic or commercial disruptions of supply similar to Ukraine in 2006 and Belarus in 2007.
Questions from participants covered a variety of topics, including the transparency of Russia in dealings with Western institutions, the development of new energy technologies, attracting young people to the energy sector, and the potential for BP to act as a moderating influence in Azerbaijan.
Conn spoke enthusiastically about the vibrant nature of the energy sector and the many R&D opportunities introduced by the development of alternative, renewable energies. He was more reserved when tackling the question of Russian transparency however. Both Conn and Stent agreed that while Russia was in principle a reliable energy provider and is becoming more transparent, the EU-Russia relationship suffers when the EU voice fragments into individual member states and, as a result, Russia can be ‘disdainful of what happens in Brussels’.