Russia: EU's protection of energy sector 'nearly hysterical'

Russia has reacted with anger at EU plans to prevent foreign companies from uncontrolled access to the European energy sector, warning that any discriminative measure will be legally challenged.

"I don't believe this can be on the agenda", the Kremlin's deputy press secretary Dmitri Peskov told the Financial Times, adding "Russia will use any legal means possible in accordance with international law to ensure equal access to markets for its companies".

Moscow's statement comes as the European Commission is reportedly working on a series of restrictive measures to be imposed on non-EU energy companies.

The measures – designed to prevent resource-rich countries from expanding in the 27-nation bloc – would range from milder ones to declaring the European energy sector a strategic industry that could be protected from non-EU country bidders.

Several EU capitals have expressed concern about the bloc's reliance on Russia as its single most important external supplier of energy.

A quarter of the bloc's gas as well as a quarter of its oil originates from there. Brussels predicts the dependency will further increase, with the EU importing 70 percent of its energy needs by 2030.

But Mr Peskov said the EU's fear of Russian expansion occasionally verge on the "near hysterical".

He insisted that his country was a reliable energy supplier, pointing out that "even at the height of the cold war, Russia did not once cut off energy supplies [to western Europe]".

"Russia is as interested in supplying Europe as Europe is in receiving gas from us. We are mutually interdependent and that interdependence is a pillar of energy security", Mr Peskov concluded.

The Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom declined to comment on the so-far unpublished EU proposals, with a company spokesperson Sergei Kuprianov telling the FT "the devil is in the detail".

Mr Kuprianov added, however, that Gazprom had been willing to engage in reciprocal acquisition deals favoured by the EU and cited sharing gas reserves with European firms in exchange for downstream assets as an example.

The Russian electricity monopoly, UES, has no plans to increase its influence in Europe, according to the FT, while the country's electricity business is opening up to foreign investors.

European utilities such as Italy's Enel and Finland's Fortum are already present in the market, after having bought stakes in Russian power plants earlier this year.