EU seeks to end Russian agri-dispute

Russia and the EU will pledge deeper co-operation to prevent agricultural disputes when foreign ministers from both sides meet next month, but some on the EU side view the move as a political victory for Moscow.

EU representatives will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Luxembourg on 23 April, when they will sign a protocol extending the existing EU-Russia contractual relations to Bulgaria and Romania, which joined the EU on 1 January.

After four months of negotiations, EU member states and Russia have now agreed to a joint statement to accompany that signature, which will commit both sides to enter consultations before introducing sanctions on veterinary products or other measures that could harm trade.

"It is a gift for Russia," said one EU diplomat involved in the negotiations. "[For them] it shows they are much more important than Ukraine and Moldova which do not have joint statements [with the EU]."

Other diplomats said that the statement would do little to stop veterinary disputes, which are suspected by many to have political motives.

EU-Russia relations remain strained by Moscow’s decision to impose a ban on Polish meat and plant exports in November 2005. Poland announced last November that it would block talks on a new EU-Russia treaty unless the ban was lifted. Russia has since threatened to expand its ban to cover the whole of the EU.

Diplomats hope that a deal can be reached so that talks on a new EU-Russia agreement can be launched at a meeting of EU and Russian leaders on 18 May.

Talks between the two sides on 13 March aimed at ending the ban yielded few results. "We tried to solve this at technical level and it did not work," said one diplomat. "I think this will have to be solved at the political level."

In the joint declaration the EU also commits itself to reviewing its anti-dumping measures against Russia.

• Russia’s food monitoring agency announced yesterday (21 March) that it was extending a ban on imports of German chicken meat.

Russia and the EU will pledge deeper co-operation to prevent agricultural disputes when foreign ministers from both sides meet next month, but some on the EU side view the move as a political victory for Moscow.