WRITTEN QUESTION E-3980/03 by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission. Yukos affair.
Date: 2004-01-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: EU relations, Russia, independence of the judiciary, oil industry, right to justice, rights of the defence

3.4.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 84 E/745

There have been previous occasions when the US has applied differentiated approaches to Member
3.
States in areas of US Government Procurement. For example in 1993 and as a result of the failure of
negotiations to liberalise purchases of telecom equipment, the US decided to impose sanctions against
certain Member States. The sanctions bar suppliers from a selected group of Member States from bidding
for some US Federal Government contracts.

4.
Although it could not be excluded a priori, it is unusual to see a third country applying limitations to
bidders from a selected group of Member States for trade or economic reasons. Such a measure is often
inefficient considering that Union suppliers often own or control subsidiaries or branches in another
Member State from which it would be easy to bid and elude the measure.

This would, in any case, hardly be the first example of a nation using financial and economic
5. and 6.
in its press statement of
levers to pursue its foreign policy objectives. However, as made clear
11 December 2003 (1), the Commission will monitor procedures relating to the awarding of contracts to
ensure that the United States honours the commitments it undertook under the auspices of the World
Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement.

(1)

IP/03/1713.

(2004/C 84 E/0840)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3980/03

by Olivier Dupuis (NI) to the Commission

(6 January 2004)

Subject: Yukos affair

On 19 June 2003, Mr Pichugin, former head of security at Yukos, was arrested and charged with the
attempted murder of Ms Kostina and with arranging the murder of Mr and Mrs Gorin. The Basmannyi
Court confirmed his arrest and the Moscow Court confirmed this decision, rejecting Mr Pichugin’s lawyers’
request for bail at RUB 3 million. The investigators refused to state the reasons why they suspect
Mr Pichugin although the murderers have already been sentenced. In view of the repeated infringements
committed by the Basmannyi Court, Mr Pichugin’s lawyers brought a complaint before the European Court
of Human Rights. In July 2003, Mr Lebedev, a major shareholder in Yukos, was arrested and charged with
fraud; he is currently in custody awaiting trial. On 26 October 2003, armed FSB agents boarded the
aircraft of the Chief Executive of Yukos, Mr Khodorkovsky, and arrested him on charges of fraud and tax
evasion. The Russian judiciary has continually violated the constitutional rights and the right to a fair trial
of those involved in this affair. The most serious infringements include the failure to respect the role of
lawyers and the principle of confidentiality between lawyer and client, the refusal to hold hearings in
public, the denial of the right to effective legal assistance, the use of arbitrary imprisonment, torture and
illegal searches, and the biased nature of the trial. In addition, 53 % of the shares in Yukos held by
Mr Khodorkovsky were confiscated in order to prevent them from being sold, according to the public
prosecutor, although they belonged to a group of foreign investors. In total, 61 % of Yukos’s shares have
been confiscated, stoking fears that Yukos may be dismantled or nationalised. The political nature of this
affair shows it to be a further attack on the process of democratisation and an intensification of the
repression of freedom of expression in the Russian Federation.

Does the Commission not feel that the behaviour of the Russian judicial and political authorities are
incompatible with the rule of law? What initiatives does the Commission intend to propose to Member
States and to take itself, within the extent of its powers, to ensure that the Russian authorities respect the
principles in force in a constitutional state and, in particular, to guarantee Mr Pichugin, Mr Lebedev and
Mr Khodorkovsky the full exercise of their right to defence, the presumption of innocence and all their
fundamental rights? More generally, is the Commission not of the opinion that the fundamental rights of
the citizens of the Russian Federation, as well as the rights of Russian or foreign investors, are not
guaranteed satisfactorily in today’s Russia?

C 84 E/746

Official Journal of the European Union

EN

3.4.2004

Answer given by Mr Patten on behalf of the Commission

(30 April 2004)

including the arrest of
The Commission has been closely following recent events
Mr Khodorkovsky and the seizure of a significant proportion of Yukos shares by the Russian authorities.

in Russia,

The Commission is aware of allegations of the violation of constitutional and due process in this case.
It understands that lawyers acting on behalf of Mr Khodorkovsky are currently seeking redress through the
Russian legal system and in the European Court of Human Rights. The Commission will follow with great
interest the outcome of such legal challenges.

the Union/Russia Summit on 6 November 2003 and the meeting of

At
the EU/Russia Permanent
Partnership Council on 27 April 2004(cid:1) as well as on the occasion of other political dialogue meetings
with the Russian authorities (cid:1) the Commission has underlined the need for Russia to ensure the fair, non-
discriminatory and proportional application of the law. It has stressed that these principles constitute
essential elements of the Union/Russia partnership and that failure to respect them risks undermining the
progress made in Russia in the last few years to create a positive environment for the development of trade
and investment.

(2004/C 84 E/0841)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-4055/03

by Elspeth Attwooll (ELDR) to the Commission

(13 January 2004)

Subject: Renewable energy

What proportion of the overall TEN-E budget goes to renewable energies, and how much of this goes to
Scotland in line with project 350 in Annex III of Decision No 1229/2003/EC (1) of the European
Parliament and Council of 26 June 2003 laying down a series of guidelines for trans-European energy
networks and repealing Decision No 1254/96/EC (2)?

Which Member States are the worst and best performers in terms of developing renewable energy? What
proportion of EU energy output ought ideally to come from renewables in order to meet the Kyoto targets,
and what proportion of that output could potentially come from Scotland in particular? Can such statistics
be broken down into different sources of renewable energy?

(1) OJ L 176, 15.7.2003, p. 11.
(2) OJ L 161, 29.6.1996, p. 147.

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(16 February 2004)

Before June 2003, only one project relating to the connection of wind power to the electricity
transmission grid had been identified under the Guidelines for trans-European energy networks (TEN-
Energy). This project, which concerned the strenthening and development of connections in the North-East
and the West of Spain, was supported under the TEN programme (with a financial support of
EUR 0,2 million decided by the Commission in 1999).

including one
With the June 2003 revision of the TEN-Energy Guidelines, several similar projects,
concerning similar connections in Scotland and England, have been identified and are now eligible to TEN
financial support. These projects may benefit
from TEN financial support provided that a related
application is submitted to the Commission and that such application is evaluated favorably and selected,
following the annual TEN financial support procedure. The application form for 2004 will be circulated in
the coming weeks by the Commission.