Press release regarding article by Tomislav Krasnec published 29 December 2006 in Jutarnji List entitled “No Družba Adria, No Russian Gas”

Regarding the article by Tomislav Krasnec entitled “No Družba Adria, No Russian Gas”, published on 29 December 2006 in Jutarnji List, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration would like to state the following:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration considers this to be yet another example of unauthorised usage of official and classified documentation and untruthful portrayal of the topics and content of the meeting of Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović and the Croatian Delegation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other Russian Federation’s state institutions, which was conducted in a friendly and open atmosphere, with mutual wishes for the intensification of the co-operation on all levels.

There was nothing classified about the meeting and the public was informed about its content, both through two minister’s statements after the meeting and later on. In that regard, the MFAEI would like to draw attention to the Press Release 249/2006 from 7 November 2006, which states that the meeting between the Croatian and Russian minister reviewed the issue of the co-operation between the two countries in energy supply as a part of a wider European energy supply strategy and the relations between the EU and the Russian Federation in that area. The Russian side expressed interest in a more prominent involvement of Croatia and the whole SEE region in the trans-European energy projects. The two ministers also noted the Družba Adria and PEOP (Pan European Oil Pipeline – Constanza-Trieste) projects. The Croatian side confirmed the interest in taking advantage of the favourable geographical position, with an emphasis on high ecological and other standards. Minister Grabar-Kitarović also informed her Russian colleague about the initiative for two said projects to be considered within the possible linking of Croatian oil system with Slovenia and Italy on land, for the purposes of securing oil transfer and protecting the Adriatic from transport and other overloading.

The MFAEI would particularly like to express its dissatisfaction with the author’s attempt to depict, through untruthful portrayal of the facts, the Družba Adria project and further gas supply to Croatia as supposedly being conditioned.

During the meeting, the Croatian Foreign Minister asked of the Russian side to consider the possibility gas supply after 2009, and for the relevant Croatian and Russian companies to continue negotiating on the subject. These negotiations are currently ongoing and will continue. The author did not consider it necessary to consult the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration and check his claims, as it would refute the thesis about the conditioning and disable the spreading of the “concern” that Croatia would run out of Russian gas.