EU freeze on closer ties leaves Russia out in cold

By David Cronin

Date: 30/09/04

EU AMBASSADORS have agreed to freeze closer ties with Russia, amid growing unease about Vladimir Putin's autocratic style of leadership.

At a meeting yesterday (29 September), the envoys approved a plan for the Union's representatives at the next EU-Russia summit merely to take note of the state of relations, rather than striving to deepen them.

A paper drawn up by the Dutch EU presidency, seen by European Voice, argues that the Union should not sacrifice quality for speed in its dealings with President Putin.

It suggests that the Union would have to make too many compromises if it sought to accelerate progress on the so-called common spaces programme at the summit on 11 November.

The meeting in The Hague will be José Manuel Barroso's first major foreign policy engagement after he takes over as president of the European Commission on 1 November.

At a summit in St Petersburg last year, the EU and Russia agreed to create four "common spaces" of cooperation.

These were in justice and home affairs, external security, economics (including energy and the environment), and science and education.

But the Dutch paper blames Russia for the sluggish progress on furthering these objectives. In the justice and home affairs field, it alleges that Russia has sought to restrict dialogue about introducing visa-free travel to and from the Union.

Moscow has, it alleges, blocked references in the joint statements issued after summits to human rights abuses, particularly in Chechnya, and to the need for judicial reform.

On security, it says that Russia will not accept the need to consult with the Union on nearby countries. It berates Russia for not honouring a commitment made at the 1999 summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to withdraw its troops from Moldova and Georgia. It reiterates criticism of Russia for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.

Yesterday's decision, which will be forwarded to foreign ministers, follows an admission by External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten that the handling of Russia had been one of the biggest failures of the common foreign and security policy.

Patten's remarks came at a meeting of foreign ministers, in the wake of the Beslan hostage crisis. According to a transcript of that discussion, he said that Russia was "good at playing members of the EU off against each other".

The cleavage within the EU was exposed in November last year, when Silvio Berlusconi endorsed Russia's strong-arm tactics in Chechnya at the end of an EU-Russia summit in Rome. This involved a detour from the Union's official policy of criticizing the use of excessive force in the breakaway republic.

Representatives of ten states that share a critical stance towards Russia will meet next month to discuss how the Union's policy should be developed. They are Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Austria, Sweden and Finland.

But diplomats from these states are trying to avoid giving the impression that they are emphasizing the Union's divisions on Russia.

"This is not an attempt to organize another Vilnius 10," said one, referring to the divisive pledge of support for the US war on Iraq signed by a group of EU leaders in 2003.

A Russian diplomat refuted the allegations made in the Dutch paper. He said that Russia has demonstrated its willingness to discuss Chechnya with the Union's policy-makers and that Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, Putin's advisor on EU relations, had done so when he visited Brussels last week.

But the Lithuanian MEP Vytautas Landsbergis, the country's former president, urged the Union not to be weak in its dealings with Russia.

"One of the mistakes Western countries make is they think that concessions have to be made to Russia, because it is a supplier of energy.

"But Russia cannot stop selling oil or gas, because it has nothing to eat, it only has natural resources. I would say to European politicians - 'don't fear that Russia will stop selling anything to you'."

In view of the EU-Russia summit on 11 November 2004 EU ambassadors agreed on 29 September to freeze closer ties with Russia amid growing unease about Vladimir Putin's autocratic style of leadership.

• Primary Source

European Commission: DG External Relations: The EU's relations with Russia http://www.eeas.europa.eu/russia/index_en.htm

---