Permanent ruling

The European Union will talk to Russia unknown when

The leadership of the European Union will continue to analyze relations between Moscow and Brussels in order to develop a common position by November 10. On this day, the next meeting of the Council of the European Union at the level of foreign ministers will be held in Brussels. They will have to make a final decision on the agenda of the Russia-EU summit scheduled for November 14 in Nice. And most importantly, resolve the issue of resuming negotiations on concluding a new basic agreement on cooperation with Russia.

Participants in the two-day EU summit that ended yesterday in Brussels agreed on this very vague schedule. The heads of state and government of 27 EU member countries have not been able to decide on the timing of the resumption of negotiations with Russia. “I really hope that this will happen before November 14,” this is how the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, responded to journalists’ questions about when exactly a specific decision will be made.

In the final resolution of the summit, the topic of relations between the EU and Russia is present, but does not differ in specifics. “The European Council examined Russia’s implementation of the September 8 agreement, the situation in Georgia and the EU’s relations with its eastern neighbors. The EU-Russia summit on November 14 in Nice will provide an opportunity to deepen dialogue with Russia. The European Council asked the European Commission to present proposals regarding the Eastern Partnership in November,” the document says.

The vagueness of the wording is caused by disagreements within the EU on how to treat the movements of Russian military personnel in the Georgian region . At the previous EU summit on September 1, it was decided to suspend negotiations with Russia until its troops returned to the positions they occupied on August 7, when hostilities began in South Ossetia. On September 8, the presidents of Russia and the French presidency of the European Union, Dmitry Medvedev and Nicolas Sarkozy, clarified their plan for a Caucasian settlement . It dealt with the withdrawal of Russian troops only from the buffer zones around Abkhazia and South Ossetia on the Georgian side. Russia complied with this requirement on October 8, two days ahead of schedule.

The fact that the European Union is entangled in Caucasian affairs was confirmed by the results of the meeting of the EU Council held on October 13 at the level of foreign ministers. The ministers were unable to reach a consensus on returning the EU to the negotiating table with Russia. France, Germany and Italy were satisfied with the withdrawal of the Russian military from the buffer zones. Poland, Sweden, Great Britain and the Baltic countries demanded that the Russians be forced to retreat to positions that existed before August 7, and before that, negotiations with them not be resumed.

It is noteworthy that the initial version of the draft resolution of the summit, which fell into the hands of journalists yesterday morning, spoke of the resumption of negotiations in November. However, Nicolas Sarkozy, who chaired the session, failed to convince all his colleagues - and mention of a specific date was omitted. “Opinions differ somewhat on this issue,” European Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner confirmed to reporters as she left the EU Council building. “But I hope that we will come to a common position.”

Many diplomats and experts in Brussels, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostei correspondent, recalled that the freezing of negotiations that had barely begun on September 1 was rather a symbolic gesture, dictated by the dissatisfaction of the majority of European governments with the unilateral actions of the Kremlin. According to them, this decision should not be regarded as an act of “punishment” of Moscow, because both sides need a new legal framework for interaction and the negotiations themselves are not directly related to the conflict in Georgia.

“There are countries within the European Union that very seriously insist that the future of the entire EU as an organization depends on relations with Russia,” Dmitry Danilov, head of the European Security Department at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told Vremya Novostei. -- When discussing political topics, Russia and the EU at the initial stage will inevitably focus on economic issues, which fall within the competence of the central bodies of the European Union, and not individual member countries. Therefore, rapid progress can be expected from the very beginning of negotiations, especially given the current global financial crisis, forcing European countries to strengthen interaction with each other and with Russia. If the negotiations between Moscow and Brussels are given a pragmatic character from the very beginning, they will have a good chance of success.”

It is no coincidence that the participants at the EU summit devoted most of their time to the global financial crisis and ways to overcome it. And in this regard, the idea that the Europeans want to “have Russia on board” sounded clear. At the final press conference, Nicolas Sarkozy said that the European Union is beginning preparations for a world summit to “revise the global financial system,” and this work should involve “rising economic powers,” which in the West includes Russia. The forum is expected to take place in November. In addition, the participants in the EU summit stated in the final resolution the need to “develop energy relations with producing and transit countries to ensure stability of supplies, diversification of energy sources and delivery routes.” This formulation can also be considered a positive gesture towards Russia.

Alexander MINEEV, Brussels, Petr ISKENDEROV