MOSCOW, March 13 (RAPSI) – Russia will appeal to the World Trade Organization to convene an arbitration panel to consider a suit it filed in December over its energy policy, Deputy Economics Minister Alexei Likhachev told journalists.

“A decision to convene the panel is to be made in late March,” he said. “The EU has not offered an amicable settlement.”

This is the first dispute initiated by Russia since it joined the WTO in August 2012.

On December 23, 2013, Moscow filed a lawsuit with the WTO demanding that the EU stop calculating the cost of products based on European energy prices. It said that Russian companies were being unfairly penalized for Russia’s low domestic energy prices.

Likhachev earlier said that consultations would be held within the standard WTO framework, and that Russia would request an arbitration panel if the sides fail to settle the dispute.