You're reading: Russia: Europe should not impose its standards on other nations

The energy issue has to be addressed in the future basic agreement between Russia and the European Union, otherwise both parties will have problems, Russia's ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said in an interview with Interfax on Tuesday.

"If you let everything drift away, there will be problems. Our energy companies, and not just Gazprom but others too, will have problems. There will be problems on the EU side as well," the ambassador said.

Consider EU member Lithuania which "is essentially heading towards the nationalization of its energy infrastructure," that is to say the gas pipeline owned by a consortium of Gazprom and a European company. They are expected to be left with just distribution networks. And the question is not only that this breaking down itself is quite debatable, Chizhov said.

"In principle, this is a reflection of a broader approach, in which I see a long-term problem both in our relations with the European Union and its relations with other countries," said the Russian diplomat, citing his conversations with representatives from other European Union partner states.

"The problem is that the European Union, apart from its conviction that everything it produces in this world represents the best global standard, also shows a persistent trend to apply this standard to the rest of the world," the Russian ambassador said.

"For instance, civil aircraft exhaust emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions in excess of the EU quotas will have to be acquired by airline companies for money. Well, this probably could be discussed in the context of global efforts to fight global warming, but not unilaterally," Chizhov said.

If the situation does not change, Russia will have to retaliate, he said. "Then the fees for Trans-Siberian flights of European aircraft will appear only half of the problem. Because then it will be a question of billions of euros for flights over the Russian airspace," the diplomat said.

He also cited the EU wood packaging standard due to be introduced in the future. "Any wooden object, including a wooden box, a crate, must have a certificate of conformity to ecological standards valid for two weeks. It might do for Europe. But if you pack something in a wooden box in Krasnoyarsk and send it to Germany, for example. It will take more than two weeks for this box just to reach the Russian border," the Russian ambassador said.

"The specifics and parameters of other states must be taken into account," he said.