The European Commission is preparing rules for investments by government agencies of third countries

European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Joaquín Almunia announced yesterday about possible EU restrictions on investments in European assets by “sovereign funds” - structures of the Russian Stabilization Fund may be among them. In the coming weeks, amendments to the European directives will be submitted to the EU governments and the European Parliament.

Yesterday, representatives of the European Commission officially confirmed the development in the EU of a new package of restrictions on foreign investment - documents regulating the rules for limiting investments of so-called “sovereign funds”. Previously, the possibility of restrictions on such investments was discussed only informally in the European Commission, but yesterday the European Commissioner for Economics and Finance, Joaquín Almunia, unexpectedly announced that drafts of such documents not only exist, but “in the coming weeks” will be submitted to the governments of the EU countries and the European Parliament. according to the standard procedure for reviewing documents.

“Sometimes, when a sovereign fund, that is, a foreign state, acts as an investor, a rather difficult situation is created,” the ITAR-TASS agency quotes Mr. Almunia. The European Commissioner did not disclose the content of the restrictions included in the package, but emphasized that we are talking about creating “uniform rules for working with foreign state capital.” At the beginning of December 2007, he explained, the European Commission will hold a special meeting on this issue.

Let us recall that the EU is currently discussing two packages of documents, which, after their adoption, may become barriers to Russian investment in Europe. The first is a package of initiatives to reform the EU's electricity and gas distribution industries. They have already been submitted on September 14, 2007 for discussion by EU states. The document does not contain direct restrictions on investment in these sectors, however, the principles of energy reform in the EU assume that owners of production assets both in the EU and outside it cannot simultaneously manage network (main gas and electricity transportation) and distribution assets in the EU countries. First of all, the amendment interferes with Gazprom, whose assets, if the amendments in the strict version are adopted, may be forcibly divided or transferred to the management of third-party structures.

The second package in development of the first is only being developed at the initiative of the European Parliament - it assumes the “principle of reciprocal access” to EU energy markets by companies from third countries. It concerns, on the one hand, the same Gazprom, on the other hand, all Russian companies, if the Russian authorities adopt the law on limiting foreign investment, which has been postponed for consideration in the second reading, as well as amendments to the law on subsoil that have not yet been submitted to the State Duma, related to foreign investment in large deposits. In this case, the “reciprocity” regime is unlikely to be provided to Russian energy companies in the EU. However, the prospects for this package of documents are still unknown.

The third package, if it passes the adoption procedure by the European Commission and the European Parliament, will primarily limit the investments of the future structures of the Russian Stabilization Fund - the Reserve Fund and the National Welfare Fund. In addition, investments in EU assets of state banks - Sberbank and VTB, development institutions - Rosnanotech, Development Bank - VEB, Russian Technologies - may be subject to restrictions. The exact parameters of the restrictions on “sovereign funds” will become known no earlier than next week - Mr. Almunia has not yet published the draft directives and related documents of the European Commission.

Dmitry Kommersant-Butrin

The EU will limit Russia's sovereignty of investments