EU-Russia pact can melt ‘frozen conflicts’ – foreign affairs chief

By Andrew Beatty

Date: 12/05/05

The European external relations commissioner says she hopes to step up co-operation with Russia significantly to resolve Europe's last 'frozen conflicts' in Moldova and Georgia, following the EU-Russia summit in Moscow earlier this week.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner told European Voice that the 52-page 'Common Spaces' agreement, signed in Moscow on Tuesday (10 May), would help propel joint EU-Russia crisis management operations in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus.

Speaking shortly before the summit Ferrero-Waldner said that the four-part agreement would provide "a very good basis for our future relations with Russia", while highlighting the urgent need to resolve the half-dozen conflicts which have lingered since the end of the Cold War.

"I think crisis management is especially important in those areas of the common neighbourhood," she said. "This means Ukraine, especially the border with Moldova - that means the Transdniestrian border and I think the question of Moldova 'as such' - and maybe also the question of Georgia."

Her comments signal an increased willingness on the part of the EU to clean up Moldova's border with Ukraine.

Since declaring independence from Moldova in 1990, Transdniester has become a centre for international arms and people smugglers.

With many Soviet-era heavy arms dumps inside Transdniester left largely unguarded, EU member states are growing increasingly worried by the security risks of leaving the conflict unresolved.

According to diplomats, plans are being considered to send an EU mission to monitor the border, currently controlled by separatists of the breakaway republic of Transdniester.

Earlier this week a British newspaper reported that one of its journalists was offered three radioactive rockets in Transdniester, after posing as representatives of an Algerian Islamic militant group.

For a sum of €390,000, arms dealers, linked to the Transdniestrian authorities, said the rockets would be transferred over the border to Ukraine and from there on to their final destination.

"There is a quite unanimous will from member states that there should be something done in helping to control the border," said one diplomat from a new member state.

Brussels-based officials have been presented with a list of options by the EU's newly appointed envoy for Moldova, Jacobovits de Szeged, and further elaboration of the plans is expected in the coming weeks.

After initial apprehension Ukrainian diplomats now say their government has agreed in principle to a temporary mission on Ukrainian territory, further talks are expected in Kiev on 18 May.

Also on the agenda will be a seven-part plan put forward by the Ukrainian government to resolve the problem of Transdniester's final status inside Moldova.

But with Russian troops still present in the country and Moscow holding sway over the Transdniestrian authorities, Russia's co-operation remains vital.

Ferrero-Waldner hopes that the conflict could provide an opportunity for such co-operation, which has so far been lacking.

"I cannot say whether I am confident but I hope that this is possible," she said.

"First, we have to come up with [ideas] how to de-freeze certain frozen conflicts and then I think we have to discuss it with our Russian partners in order to see if there is a way out, but I do hope that there is a new atmosphere that can be created.

"It is also very important to have an atmosphere that is prone to solutions."

The commissioner said that she hoped Russia would move towards improving democratic standards, and warned that any attempt by President Vladimir Putin to run for a third term in office must be sanctioned by the constitution - which currently limits leaders to two terms in office.

"We are always aiming for democratic rule and for rules that are really going hand in hand with the basis of democracy. It is all a matter of whether it is constitutional or not. We are not interfering in the internal relations of the country, but I think it has to be constitutional," said Ferrero-Waldner.

Comments by the European Commissioner for External Relations and the Neighbourhood Policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, following the EU-Russia Summit, Moscow, 10 May 2005. Among the items discussed were the conclusion of the Common Spaces agreement between the EU and Russia as well as co-operation on the frozen conflicts in Moldova's breakaway region Transdniester and Georgia.

European Commission: DG External Relations: Countries: Russia: EU-Russia Summit 2005 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/external_relations/russia/summit_05_05/index.htm

---