News: Russia & EU

Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.. The European Commission today released a set of proposals to streamline the EU's relations with Russia. The paper, which will now be discussed by the bloc's member states, says the EU must in future define its interests more clearly and coherently, speak "with one voice," and -- if necessary -- start linking different issues to more effectively promote its goals. The commission also says human rights -- and particularly the situation in Chechnya -- must acquire greater prominence on the EU's agenda.

It is an open secret in Brussels that the EU-Russia relationship is in trouble. While the EU recognizes Russia as a key partner both in global and regional terms, the bloc has struggled to promote its own goals in the partnership.

The low point came late last year at the EU-Russia summit in Rome, where Moscow skillfully exploited differences between the bloc's member states, thwarting most advances sought by the EU.

The Rome debacle set in motion a drive within the bloc for a reassessment of its relationship with Russia, of which the commission paper is the first fruit. A parallel exercise is under way among the bloc's member states, who will have the final say on any policy decisions.

Diego de Ojeda is a European Commission spokesman for external relations. This morning, he offered RFE/RL the following summary of the present state of the EU-Russia partnership: "The communication tries to identify a number of things that are not working or are not working sufficiently well in EU-Russia relations. Some of these things are pertinent to the commission, because we have too many departments dealing with Russia, so we need to coordinate better. Some of the aspects refer to coordination between the member states and the [EU] presidency and the [EU] high representative [for foreign policy Javier] Solana, and the commission -- we need to have a more coherent and more clear views expressed by the EU. And some, frankly, refer to some imprecision and lack of results that we also identify as being the responsibility of Russia."

"[In] a number of areas, where we remain at a declaratory level, including when we refer to shared values, we should make it more precise and tell the Russians exactly what we think our common values mean."

The European Commission paper lists a number of important EU interests. Russia is described as a key global actor, not least because it holds a seat on the UN Security Council. It plays a significant role in the EU's "new neighborhood," the stability of which is of great importance for the bloc. Russia is also a vital source of oil and gas for the EU.

Yet, the document says, relations have come under "increasing strain." Russia has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, it continues to resist EU requests on Siberian overflight rights, and has threatened to block the extension of its Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with the EU to the 10 new member states.

The paper says Moscow has also adopted an "assertive" stance toward a "number of acceding countries" -- notably Estonia and Latvia over their Russian-speaking minorities -- as well as its ex-Soviet neighbors. Questions over the fairness of the State Duma elections last December, and continuing human rights violations, are also mentioned.

An Irish presidency paper, seen by RFE/RL and currently being discussed by the member states, offers a comprehensive list of Russian "priorities." These include accession to the World Trade Organization on its own terms; a relaxation of visa requirements; frequent summits with the participation of all 25 EU member states; "decision sharing" in the EU's defense project; "minimum EU involvement" in the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union; no EU "commentary" on internal Russian affairs; and compensation for the negative effects of EU enlargement.

To effectively advance its own agenda in the face of these clearly formulated Russian demands, the commission document says, the EU needs to increase internal coordination and "make full use of its combined negotiating strength."

De Ojeda today said the EU's rotating presidencies should each, in turn, work on setting out clearer objectives. "We think that the European Union should identify a list of more precise objectives under each presidency, and that this should be realistic and issue-based, or results-orientated, for each [term] before the presidency starts," he said. "And then we should set [out] to achieve these objectives together with Russia, and we should not be shy in defending EU interests on a basis of reciprocity."

"Reciprocity" here is a reference to a growing feeling within the EU that the bloc should learn from the Russian practice of "linking" issues -- blocking progress in some areas in order to secure concessions in others.

The commission paper says such links should only be made between "related" issues, and goes on to list a few. Among them are the possibility of offering Russia trade preferences for the extension of the PCA to the new member states, a certain easing of visa restrictions in return for a readmission agreement on illegal immigrants, and increased defense cooperation with Russia in exchange for Moscow's help in resolving the conflicts in Moldova and the South Caucasus.

De Ojeda today said human rights concerns will also take on greater prominence. "[In] a number of areas, where we remain at a declaratory level, including when we refer to shared values, we should make it more precise and tell the Russians exactly what we think our common values mean," he said. "That applies to human rights, the rule of law and, of course, that applies to media freedom, or in the context of media freedom, and in Chechnya, in particular."

De Ojeda said the EU should insist on unfettered access for humanitarian aid agencies to Chechnya and demand the prosecution of human rights violations so that "immunity is not an option."

Today's European Commission document also calls for a clarification of EU strategies toward the South Caucasus, Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus. It says the bloc should engage the newly independent states

"on the basis of its own strategic objectives," cooperating with Russia "whenever possible”(By Ahto Lobjakas).

EUobserver. Rows are prompting the EU to push a tougher line in its policy towards Russia. In a document unveiled yesterday the EU has signalled it will press its neighbour on human rights, Chechnya and Russia’s 'near abroad'.

In the midst of disputes over EU enlargement, the European Commission has produced a new framework for the Union’s relations with Russia.

After a disastrous EU-Russia summit last year, the EU decided in December to review they way it does business with the country.

Led by the Italian Presidency at the summit, divisions between the EU’s member states were effectively exploited by Moscow.

Silvio Berlusconi - the then President of the Council - shocked other EU leaders by apparently backing Russia’s actions in the breakaway Republic of Chechnya.

The Commission is now calling for more consistency:

"The EU needs to take a more coherent and more consistent approach to relations with Russia, which must be founded on the implementation of the common values underlying the bilateral partnership", reads a unusually strong statement from the Commission.

Hardened relations
But even with polices on which the EU broadly agrees, relations have hardened.

Russia has so far refused to sign the bilateral agreement which forms the legal basis for relations between the EU and Russia before some of its demands are met.

Mixed up with the emotional baggage of the majority of the 10 states entering on 1 May being ex-Soviet satellites, the issues threaten to turn into a bitter row.

Speaking at a book launch yesterday (9 February) Estonia’s soon to be Commissioner, Siim Kallas said tersely that he wanted the EU to have "stable relations with Russia, and good relations with the Ukraine".

"[I]n many areas, EU and Russian positions appear to have diverged" said the Commission.

"These include ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the extension of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) to the ten new EU Member States and the need to make it work more effectively, the approach to resolving frozen conflicts in the NIS as well as respect for the rule of law and human rights, particularly as regards media freedom and events in Chechnya".

"The EU and Russia should be ready, as strategic partners, to discuss frankly all issues of concern, including human rights, media freedom and events in Chechnya in addition to strengthening co-operation on concrete issues, on the basis of common interests".

Foreign Ministers will debate the document later this month at their meeting in Brussels (

Financial Times. Russia has told the European Union it will support the Union's enlargement in May only if Brussels agrees to a list of demands aimed at securing Russia's economic interests in central and eastern Europe.

RIA Novosti. In Brussels German Gref, Russian Minister for Economic Development and Trade, and Pascal Lami, the European Union Commissioner for Trade, will discuss the problem of EU expansion, RIA Novosti was told at the Russian ministry for Economic Development and Trade.

"Effects of the EU expansion for Russia and the unsettled questions of its joining the World Trade Organisation will be in discussion at the meeting, due in Brussels on January 30", said the ministry.

It recalled that a Russian delegation led by deputy minister Maxim Medvedkov has flown to Brussels on Tuesday for a regular round of talks with European experts on problems of Russia's joining the WTO. At the talks, matters of access to the Russian market of farming products, telecommunication and insurance services will be in discussion.

The Russian delegation is also going to talk expansion of the European Union starting from May 1, when the EU admits ten new members.

Earlier, Medvedkov said to reporters that, as a result of EU expansion, Russian companies may lose up to 150 million dollars. This is due to the increase of quotas for Russian goods to the EU new entrants and the use of antidumping measures regarding Russia.

 

(Response to Report by C. Malmström)

Mr. Chairman,

Madam Rapporteur,

Honourable Members of the European Parliament,

Let me begin by thanking the Parliament, and in particular Ms Malmstrцm, for this very useful report. Its timing is highly opportune - only two weeks ago I was myself in Russia, visiting the country Winston Churchill so famously described as a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. My experience was more positive, and indeed the EU-Russia Summit President Barroso and I attended was very successful.

Many of the issues the report raises are highly relevant to our discussions in Moscow, and to the implementation of what was agreed. So let me give you an overview of what we achieved, and where we are going from here.

Our major achievement was adopting the roadmaps for the four common spaces: economic; freedom security and justice; external security; and research, education and culture. They will provide the basis for significantly enhancing our relations with Russia in the coming years.

Most importantly, we confirmed that the EU-Russia relationship is based on common values, including respect for human rights and democracy, the rule of law, and a free market economy. These values must guide us as we turn to implementation.

In the economic sphere I welcome the Parliament’s emphasis on our common interest in seeing Russia become a partner with an open, dynamic, diversified economy and a transparent judicial system. This will be at the forefront as Russia comes closer to WTO membership and we start creating our common economic space.

At the Summit we again made absolutely clear that phasing out non-commercial payments for Siberian over-flights is essential for our economic cooperation. We also ensured that energy cooperation and the Kyoto Protocol are high on the list of priorities in the roadmap. And I can confirm for you that, as requested in your Resolution, the Commission will continue to provide financial support for Russia’s implementation of Kyoto and for nuclear safety.

In the field of freedom, security and justice, we agreed that we must rapidly conclude negotiations on readmission and on visa facilitation. I believe that agreement on both issues is within reach and we should aim to resolve them by the next summit in October. The Commission and the Member States remain convinced that simultaneous implementation of the two agreements is essential.

We raised the issue of human rights and the dialogue on the Northern Caucasus with Russia. Following our April fact finding mission we are exploring ways to provide financial support for socio-economic recovery in addition to our considerable humanitarian assistance. As indicated in your Resolution, this must be within the framework of a satisfactory political process: holding free and fair elections and improving administrative and institutional structures. We shall continue our dialogue with the Russian authorities on this point. We also agreed that human rights and international obligations must be respected as part of fighting terrorism in an effective and resolute manner.

Turning to external security, we agreed with the Russian authorities that we both want an integrated Europe without new dividing lines. I stressed that we can work together to help promote stability and prosperity in countries like Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, without forcing them to choose one camp or the other.

Finally, let me underline the importance of our agreement on the common space for research, education and culture. Cooperation in these areas will help promote the exchange of ideas and mutual understanding - to the benefit of all the peoples of Europe.

Honourable Members,

Your Resolution rightly draws attention to the fact that Russia is an important strategic partner for the European Union, all the more so since our latest enlargement. This has highlighted the need to further develop cooperation with Russia’s north-western regions through the Northern Dimension. I must also agree with your suggestion that the Union’s policy towards Russia has too often suffered from a lack of coherence. We must all intensify our efforts to define and maintain a common EU line.

The success of our Summit will enable us to strengthen our relations on an agreed basis and in a coherent manner. We will be able to substantially deepen our cooperation across a wide range of sectors, and we must use all the possibilities offered to us by our Partnership and Cooperation Agreement to do so.

I also think it is time to reflect on the best framework for our relations after 2007, when the initial 10 year period of our Partnership and Cooperation Agreement comes to an end. My priority is to work consensually with Russia, and to listen carefully to all ideas. I would be very interested in hearing the European Parliament’s views.

Dear colleagues,

In the words of Tolstoy, “there is only one time that is important – now! It is the most important because it is the time we have power”. I hope I can count on this Parliament to work with me and my colleagues in the Commission, using our time in office to make substantial progress in EU-Russia relations. I can assure you that the Commission will take full account of the points made in your Resolution, and I remain at your disposal for further discussions on this important subject.

From The Economist print edition. And now for а "counter-factual", as historians say-an imagining of what might have bееn. What if the Baltic revolutions had failed in 1990? What if the Soviet Union had not unraveled there еvеn as communism was collapsing at its centre? Remarkably, something does exist to guide our imagination. Russia still holds а piece of land оn the Baltic Sea, caught between Lithuania and Poland: it is Kaliningrad, а city of half а million people and а surrounding region of half а million more. The most we саn say is that the Baltic countries would have looked а bit mоrе like this: and it is оnе of the most depressed and depressing places in Europe.

 

When the Red Armу took what was then called Кonigsbеrg in 1945, it dynamited the city and killed оr expelled the German population. The city and province were renamed Kaliningrad, after Russia's figurehead president of the day, Mikhail Kalinin. Russians and other 50viet nationalities settled the area. When Annе Applebaum, аn American journalist (and а former writer for this newspaper), went to Kaliningrad in 1991 she could find only three pre-war Germans still recorded officially as living there, out of а former population of mоrе than 1т.

 

The collapse of the Soviet Union has left Kaliningrad аn "exclave" of Russia, separated from the rest of the country bу Lithuania and Belarus. It is heavily militarized, the hometown of Russia's Baltic Sеа fleet. Nobody challenged Russia's continuing claim to Kaliningrad when the Soviet Union broke up, nоr do they do so now. But Russia talks edgily about the province in а way that betrays а measure of anxiety, and rightly so, about its tenure there.

 

Nationalist politicians in Moscow sometimes claim to detect signs that Germany is scheming to repossess Kaliningrad: for example, as settlement of Russia's sovereign debt to Germany. But nothing of the kind is in prospect. So complete was Russia's "cleansing" and leveling of the former Кonigsbеrg that Germany has long since relegated to the history books its feelings of kinship with the province.

 

The rеаl worry for Russia is that Kaliningrad will fall so far behind its Baltic neighbouгs in development that its inhabitants will want to cut loose from the Russian еcоnоmу and join the European еcоnоmу instead. At the start of this уеаr the average wage in the Kaliningrad region was about $150 а month, roughly half the level prevailing in Lithuania and а third of that in Poland. The rate of НIV/AIDS, at тоге than 350 eases реr 100,000 people, is among the highest in Еurоре­ - perhaps ten times greater than in Lithuania next door. The development gap between Kaliningrad and its neighbors is likely only to widen further after Poland and the Baltic countries join the EU next уеаr.

 

Russia has fiddled around with special trade regimes for Kaliningrad since 1991, supposedly to stimulate economic growth there. But these have done little to encourage investment and lots to encourage smuggling and corruption. Now Russia talks vaguely about using Kaliningrad as а "pilot region" for developing deeper relations with the EU. The EU talks back in similarly vague terms.

 

But nothing much is happening, mainly because Russia rejects the idea of а "Hong Kong" solution for Kaliningrad, allowing it to bесоmе а de facto part of the EU while still under Russian sovereignty. Russia's worries about secession incline it towards the opposite strategy, а strengthening of central authority and аn insistence that Kaliningrad will get less, not mоrе, special treatment. When Russia complains that EU enlargement will make Kaliningrad even mоrе isolated, the permanent remedy it seeks is not а special deal for Kaliningrad residents, but visa-free travel between а" of Russia and all of the European Union.

 

In fact, bу Russian standards, Kaliningrad is not isolated at all. Most of Russia east of the Urals is accessible only by air, оr bу grueling overland routes, and some areas for only paгt of the уеаr. But to insist оn Kaliningrad's isolation, and to blame EU for worsening it, is useful diplomatically for Russia. It supplies а permanent grievance against EU enlargement that Russia саn link to negotiations in other areas. If the EU feigns deafness, then а deniable hint that Russia might build а nuclear power station in Kaliningrad, оr stockpile tactical nuclear weapons there, is sure to get its attention. What саn the EU do about this? Not much, save to hope that the rising prosperity of countries around Kaliningrad will make а new arrangement, integrating it mоrе closely with the EU, irresistible оnе day even to Russia.