MOSCOW, January 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia will start consultations with the European Union on February 11-13 within the WTO (World Trade Organisation) lawsuit against the EU over energy adjustments, Economic Development Deputy Minister Alexei Likhachev told Itar-Tass on Thursday.

“The first consultations will start on February 11-13, 2014. Before we gathered for working meetings,” Likhachev said.

The consultations will prove if we settle the dispute through pre-trial procedure or through the DSB panel. “Everything will depend on Europe’s position at the consultations,” the deputy minister said.

If the parties fail to reach agreement, Russia has the right to enter the next stage - to form the DSB panel in order to resolve the dispute, he said.

Russia claims that Brussels has unfairly thwarted the ability of certain Russian chemical and manufacturing groups to break into the European market.

In a request for formal consultation with the EU, Moscow claimed that Russian companies were being unfairly penalised for Russia’s low domestic energy prices and forced, as a result, to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in import tariffs.