The bearish relationship

Date: 23/02/06

"It is like a supermarket," said one EU diplomat describing member states' contacts with Russia, "one offers this, another offers that".

The complaint is not a new one, but it is likely to intensify as Russia and the EU once again look at how to underpin their 'strategic partnership'.

In 2007 the EU and Russia will have to decide on the future of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) which has provided the legal basis for relations since 1997.

Moscow argues that with its pending accession to the World Trade Organization large swathes of the agreement - which focuses primarily on trade issues - will become irrelevant and a new document is needed to cement relations and address new areas of concern.

Few in the EU disagree with the notion that the PCA is a document from another time - drafted in 1994, a time when Russia was under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin and struggling to establish a new economic system and to discard the old command economy.

But nervous diplomats sense that Russia is beginning to exploit differences between member states in order to get the best possible deal from the new agreement.

Conversely, for some, the election of Angela Merkel as German chancellor offers hope that the 'bad old days' of the Russian pick-and-mix are, if not gone, at least receding and the two sides can get down to business. In her contacts with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Merkel has been more willing than her predecessor Gerhard Schröder to ruffle feathers and to be more forthright on the EU's strategic interests.

Increasingly member states are asking how they can focus on deeds and not words in the new deal.

All sides appear to agree that what is needed is a legally binding treaty. The EU in particular is keen to ensure that there be no legal vacuum when the PCA expires, even if this means extending the document while negotiations continue.

As yet a common EU position is difficult to detect but there appears to be a growing consensus that the two sides need only make small changes to the document but make use of the provisions which have been ignored such as the senior-level contact meetings.

They point out that the PCA's provision for holding senior-level meetings to work out problems has not been taken up since 2003.

But the EU and Russia could work on implementing the non-binding 'Four Common Spaces' agreed in May 2005, it is argued.

This may not satisfy everyone.

Russian Europhiles such as Nadia Arbatova of the Russian Academy of Sciences are calling for a new agreement which breaks completely with the PCA and lays out a more ambitious platform based on Russia's integration to the EU.

But as yet there is little sign that Putin or the EU wants to shop in that particular supermarket.

Article on the future of EU-Russia relations. Author suggests that EU officials were increasingly worried about Russia exploiting differences within the Union to get a better Partnership deal to follow the present Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA).
Article is part of a European Voice Special Report, 'EU-Russia'.

European Commission: DG External Relations: Countries: Russia http://www.eeas.europa.eu/russia/index_en.htm

---