UK soothes energy industry fears over EU charter

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told parliament that amendments, circulated by EU president Italy, added an assurance stating that a member state's right to exploit its energy resources should not be affected.

"(It) provides protection for a nation state's use of its own resources," Straw said. "We have to be eagle-eyed on this to ensure that this text finds its way into any final treaty to which we sign up. I promise the House that I shall ensure that we do so."

Britain's oil industry urged the government last month to keep national control over energy policy as talks over a new European constitution reached an end game. Industry representatives said Britain's energy assets, which are the largest of any EU member, deserved so-called "red-line" status -- along with issues like tax, defence and foreign affairs.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has vowed to retain unilateral British control of those key areas.

"I believe that the constitution will protect all the red lines that we have set out," he told parliament recently ahead of a showdown EU summit in Brussels.

Oil industry chiefs feared a two-paragraph "energy chapter" in the bulky draft constitution was so vague it could allow sovereignty over North Sea resources to be handed to Brussels.

They were also concerned that the potential uncertainty created by the loosely-worded text could deter future investment in the mature North Sea fields.

Straw said he had worked in tandem with the Netherlands, writing a joint letter to the Italian presidency to emphasise that this was a shared concern "between two of the largest oil and gas producers in the European Union".

"What we were overwhelmingly concerned about was the...possiblity that the Commission by use of QMV (majority vote in the bloc) could frankly take control over oil and gas energy policy issues," he said.