The EU-Russia summit in St. Petersburg: Another ‘new’ beginning?

The relationship between the EU and Russia – the ‘strategic partnership’, as it has been called – is of clear geopolitical and economic importance. The EU and Russia are the two main political poles in contemporary Europe. It is hard to imagine any politically salient pan-European project moving forward without both parties’ agreement and active support.

The same holds true in the economic sphere: the economic linkages between the EU and Russia are vital for both. The EU is Russia’s main trading partner and biggest source of foreign direct investments. Russia is the EU’s key partner on energy security, as well as an important source of other natural resources and a promising market for EU companies. In economic terms, the EU and Russia could potentially be a match made in heaven. It seems natural that these positive prospects would extend into the political sphere as well. But the political relationship between the two strategic partners has been fraught with problems throughout the 2000s. The dynamics between the two have gone from bad to worse, to the point where both sides are now approaching mutual disillusionment.