Alrosa, De Beers and EC To Meet in June

Alrosa, De Beers and the European Commission have scheduled a meeting for June to discuss the Commission’s "Statement of Objections" to the diamond trading agreement signed between miners in December 2001.

Alrosa vice president, Dmitry Novikov, says this will be the first meeting on the issue between the two diamond giants and the EC, adding, "We hope for a constructive dialog with the commission”.

Alrosa submitted the agreement to the EC in March 2002, and ten months later, in January 2003, the Commission replied with the "Statement of Objections" to the two sides.

According to the "Statement of Objections" the EC views the agreement to be in breach of European Union competition rules.

In the time that past since December 2001, when a previous agreement between De Beers and Alrosa expired, the two sides have been trading on a ‘willing seller – willing buyer’ basis.