| Europe and Russia solve the problems of visas and Kaliningrad The Putin-Bush summit in Bratislava had barely ended when Moscow began preparing for a new responsible summit meeting. On May 10, Vladimir Putin will meet in the Russian capital with the leaders of 25 European Union countries. Yesterday in Luxembourg, which holds the EU presidency for the current six months, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discussed preparations for the summit. The meeting was held in the format of “three European commissioners for foreign policy plus a Russian minister.” “I would like to be not a guest of the European Union troika, but a member of the quartet,” Mr. Lavrov noted.
At yesterday's negotiations, the topic of visa-free travel for Russians to the territory of the European Union was raised. Sergei Lavrov confirmed to reporters that a visa-free regime is still seen as the ultimate goal, which could be realized “if not in 2008, then soon after that.” “We are in favor of solving this step by step,” the Russian minister noted.
Answering a question from Vremya Novostey about the prospects for visa-free travel between Russia and Europe, the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security Javier Solana said: “I cannot give specific dates, they are simply not known to anyone. But we are working to make this happen as soon as possible." Our interlocutor frankly admitted that “there is no decision yet, in particular, there is no agreement on readmission,” with which the EU links the introduction of a visa-free regime for Russia. It is assumed that the Russian authorities must ensure the return to their territory of citizens arriving from Russia whose further stay in Europe is undesirable.
Already this year, Russia expects to achieve a simplified procedure for obtaining visas to all 25 EU countries for certain categories of its citizens. Scientists, diplomats, journalists, politicians, cultural figures, and students will be in a privileged position. This regime is already in effect when Russians travel to Italy, France and Germany.
The issue of freedom of movement has become vitally important for residents of the Kaliningrad region, whose trips to the rest of Russia pass through EU territory. “We agreed to speed up work on the creation of a special Russian-EU mechanism on all problems related to Kaliningrad and related to the expansion of the European Union,” Sergei Lavrov said yesterday.
As one of the members of the Russian delegation told VN, contrary to previous agreements, cargo transit to Kaliningrad has also become more complicated, especially through the territory of Lithuania. Cargo is delayed longer than usual at the border; businessmen have recently been paying, for example, mandatory Lithuanian guards for their trucks, and paying increased sanitary and veterinary duties. Another customs dispute between the EU and Russia is over duties on Russian aluminum products. The Europeans want to increase duties on it from 4% to 7%. Moscow insists that this contradicts previous agreements.
On the eve of the meeting in Luxembourg, reports appeared in Western media that European colleagues would seek from Mr. Lavrov a report on the situation with human rights and freedom of speech in Russia. Today in Brussels the first meeting of the Russia-EU working group on human rights will take place, and Russia will be especially interested in the problem of infringement of the rights of the Russian-speaking population in the Baltic countries.
However, as Javier Solana told VN yesterday, during Lavrov’s visit to Luxembourg “this issue was not particularly discussed.” According to him, “the negotiations were constructive, and the discussion was mainly about the formation of four common spaces between the European Union and Russia,” which are also called four road maps. These are the economy, internal security and justice, external security, and, finally, the most developed area - science and culture. Agreements on four common spaces could be signed as early as May 10 at the summit in Moscow.
As is tradition, pressing international problems were also discussed yesterday - Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Palestine. The parties also touched upon the situation in the Balkans, Georgia and Moldova. The last two countries, as European Commissioner Benita Ferrera-Waldner especially emphasized, “are close to both Europeans and Russians . ” Today Sergei Lavrov will take part in an international conference in London on providing assistance to the Palestinian Authority.
The Kaliningrad Regional Duma proposed amending federal legislation and establishing visa-free entry and exit of foreigners from this region. In particular, parliamentarians propose to add to the federal law “On the procedure for leaving the Russian Federation and entering the Russian Federation” a formulation according to which “for citizens of member states of the European Union, a visa-free procedure for entry into the Kaliningrad region and exit from the Kaliningrad region outside Russia is established provided that the total period of stay in the region does not exceed 90 days over one calendar year,” the Duma press service said in a statement.
Two years ago, such an initiative was already introduced by local deputies to the State Duma, but then it was rejected. However, at present, according to Kaliningrad parliamentarians, the relevance of the adoption of this bill is associated with the upcoming celebrations on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad and the 60th anniversary of the Kaliningrad region, where many guests will arrive. The relaxation of visa rules will also create more favorable conditions for foreign investment and business activity in the region and will contribute to the development of socio-economic ties between the Kaliningrad region and EU countries, the report notes. Elena SUPONINA, Luxembourg--London |
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