RAO UES Russia becomes E7 associate partner

Heads of the nine world's largest electric energy companies announced the establishment of partnership relations with RAO UES Russia at the 13th E7 annual forum, reads the press release of the Russian Industry and Energy Ministry issued on Friday.

RAO UES Russia has become an E7 associate partner.

This status means that the company representatives can attend all E7 meetings but do not have the right to vote on some issues.

The Russian energy holding was proposed to join E7 as its associate partner in 2001 when company head Anatoly Chubais was taking part in an E7 summit in Italy.

RAO UES Russia is expected to become an equal E7 member in 2006 when Russia will get the full status of the G8 member.

"The establishment of partnership relations between E7 and RAO UES Russia is a historic stage in the cooperation between developed countries, which aims at stable and ecologically safe development on the global scale," Anatoly Chubais said following the signing of the agreement.

Acting E7 chairman, RWE President Harry Roels highly assessed the new alliance with RAO UES Russia, one of the world's largest electric energy companies with 600,000 employees.

E7 is an international non-profit organization uniting the leading G8 electric energy companies: American Electric Power (USA), Electricite de France (France), Enel (Italy), Hydro-Quebec (Canada), Kansai Electric Power Company Inc. (Japan), Ontario Power Generation (Canada), RWE (Germany), ScottishPower (Great Britain) and Tokyo Electric Power Company (Japan).

The main goal of the organization is to provide stable and ecologically safe electric energy development.