From Cooperation to Partnership: Moving Beyond the Russia-EU Deadlock

Summary:

Since spring 2013 we can be certain: Europeans and Russians are flying together to Mars. However, for quite a long time nothing as positive as this has been in evidence in the political relations between Russia and the EU. The construction of a Common European Home, which started 20 years ago to the accompaniment of high hopes and a great deal of enthusiasm, has come to a standstill.

Since 2008, the two sides have been negotiating a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement that is designed to replace the 1997 Agreement, which expired in 2007. When and whether these negotiations can reach a successful conclusion is a matter for conjecture. The relationship is clearly no longer as friendly as it used to be, and over the years the way in which the two sides talk to each other has become far more abrasive. In the run-up to the Vilnius summit in November 2013, at which the EU will be talking to its eastern neighbours, one has had the impression that we are back in the darkest days of the Cold War. Russia has issued a stern warning to the former Soviet republics, including the largest of them, Ukraine, and told them not to deepen their relations with the EU. Armenia has already backed down, and, instead of concluding an Association and Free Trade Agreement with the EU, now intends to join the Russian-led Eurasian Customs Union. This volume is devoted to the questions of why the integration of Russia into the Euro-Atlantic community has failed to materialise, at least for the time being, and of what options are still available when it comes to improving relations between the EU and Russia. We asked eight noted experts on European-Russian relations from Russia and the EU to analyse the state of mutual relations and to suggest various ways in which they could grow and develop. Furthermore, contributors from the U.S. and China shed some light on the European-Russian relationship from a global perspective.