Translated material
Conversational genre
Russia and the European Union begin negotiations on a new partnership agreement
The flavor of the Russian North, tea from a samovar fanned by a boot, and the semi-final of the European Football Championship led to the main, although quite expected, result. At the Russia-European Union summit held in Khanty-Mansiysk on Friday, the parties agreed to begin negotiations on a new basic agreement. The first round starts in Brussels next Friday, July 4th. However, no one can guess how long it might take to bring positions together and consolidate them on paper.The negotiation process will obviously be very difficult. “We had, have and will have very good relations. But this does not mean that we should dry up and do nothing. We must give them constant dynamism,” Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said at a press conference following the summit. However, the entire further course of the press conference showed that the differences in the positions of the parties are much greater than they would like. And how the parties will reach a compromise on the new agreement is still completely unclear. In case the process drags on, it was agreed that the previous Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which formally expired in December last year, will remain in force until a new one is concluded.
“We have begun large-scale negotiations to conclude a new agreement designed to become the basis of a strategic partnership. This agreement is short, framework, without unnecessary detail, but very important for the parties,” said Mr. Medvedev.
But European officials are counting on greater detail and enhanced elaboration of the topic of energy cooperation. “Although we still need to agree on our views through negotiations, we are united in our starting positions: we need an improved, more ambitious foundation for relations between the European Union and Russia, which would correspond to the scale and diversity of our cooperation that we have achieved over the past decade,” the prime minister said Janez Janša, currently presiding over the EU, Slovenia. “With the wide range of issues on which we have expanded and deepened the dialogue, there are also differences in points of view. Therefore, it is important that open partnership discussion mechanisms operate,” he added.
“The new agreement should reflect, in our opinion, the principles of the Energy Charter, as well as the principles that were agreed upon at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg,” supported the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso. But until now, Russia has stubbornly refused to ratify the Energy Charter in its current form, so this point will obviously cause many painful moments for the negotiators.
In addition, Dmitry Medvedev proposed starting negotiations on the preparation of an agreement on collective security. Russia has not lost hope of stopping the deployment of the American missile defense system in Eastern Europe. “It is absolutely obvious that pan-European security is indivisible. It cannot break up into blocks or alliances. It cannot be provided by one state or group of states. Precisely because this is the security of the entire European continent,” the Russian president believes. At the same time, he drew special attention to the fact that none of the existing organizations in the world - neither NATO, nor the EU, nor the CSTO - is able to resolve global security issues.
But the EU sees this situation somewhat differently. According to Mr. Janša, “BMD is not an EU decision. This is an issue that concerns some members of the European Union and also wider aspects of European security as a whole. I think that each of these open issues, as well as the missile defense issue, can be resolved, as Mr. Solana said, without us being in a bad mood and with bad consequences.” That is, official Brussels does not intend to support Russia in the matter of banning the deployment of missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic.
However, Mr Medvedev stressed that he had no intention of backing down. Moscow is behind. The President of Russia also gave an answer to this question, although it was not addressed to him. “Europe is our common home. And as states - the owners of this house, we must remember our responsibilities for its maintenance. It is impossible to assign these responsibilities to your neighbors, just as it is impossible to entrust the maintenance of a house to one, even a very wealthy, owner (USA - Ed. ). Therefore, I believe that all issues related to maintaining and ensuring European security - be it missile defense issues, CFE Treaty issues - must be achieved through collective efforts. If they are ensured on a quasi-bilateral basis, the interests of other states suffer from this. That is why we are extremely skeptical about the initiative in the field of a third position area (deployment of the American missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. - Ed .), We consider this idea harmful, which does not ensure the task of maintaining security on the European continent and global security,” said Mr. - Mr. Medvedev.