Russia did not fit again

Europe and Asia met in Brussels, where Russia was alone. We summarize the results of the EU summits and the European -Asia forum

The last three days of the last weeks Brussels, more precisely, the new Corps of the EU Council with a giant round ball inside, has become a real umbilical waist of the Earth, a place of gathering leaders of 51 states. At first, the first persons of the European Union countries solved their problems and the Englishwoman Teresa May and Italian Giuseppe Comte became anti -Heroes. Then, at the European -Asia forum (Asem), the main character was the prime minister of the State Council of the PRC Lee Katsyan. Vladimir Putin was not enough in the constellation, he, like his Chinese colleague, sent the head of government to Brussels. Dmitry Medvedev was the first Russian Russian, who visited the EU capital in the era after Crimea.

Difficult fate "Brexit"

At dinner on Wednesday, the leaders of the countries discussed Brexit. Before the UK exit from the Union, five months remained, but there is no desired agreement on future relations between Albion and the continent yet, and negotiations about it have come to a dead end. If it will not be on time, then the relationship will be built “on a common basis”. In Brussels, scripts for this case are already ready to avoid chaos.

It was expected that Teresa May would bring “creative decisions”, say about the new concessions of London (27 EU members remained that they had nothing to concede). Closer to the night on the press center flashed with reference to the “sources”: May did not say anything new in her 15-minute performance, although negotiations will continue to stop and there is still a faint hope for a shift from a dead point.

The next day I receive information, as they say, first -hand. First, in a crowded hall where the press conference is held by the Chairman of the European Council Donald Tusk and the head of the European Commission Jean-Claude Junker.

“Today I have a feeling that we are closer to the final decisions and agreement,” says Tusk. “This may be more at the level of emotions than judgment, but, as you know, emotions are also important in politics.”

Negotiations on the conditions for the divorce of the United Kingdom from the EU are blocking the problem of the border between Ireland, which remains in the United Europe and the British province of North Ireland. So far, it is not possible to coordinate such a security network (Backstop), which is necessary so that a real border does not arise on the island. The transparency of the border is one of the foundations of the “Holy Friday” Agreement of 1998, on which the world is held in Olster. The positions of London and Brussels on this issue are currently implacable, which they confirmed during the summit.

The EU proposes to leave Northern Ireland in the Customs Union and in the European Unified Market, and conduct the customs border on the strait if there is no other solution. London wants the entire United Kingdom to remain in a single customs space with the continent until the signing of a wider free trade agreement. But the United Kingdom, and therefore leaves the EU that he does not want to fulfill all the conditions of a single market, primarily the free movement of labor.

After the press conference, I go to the second floor to the British Hall, where interested journalists expect a briefing Teresa May. She was not long in coming and was in an unexpectedly good mood for such a tense situation. In a bargaining with the EU, she has a limited maneuver field due to difficulties in obtaining support at home, in her party, in parliament.

She smiled and joked. I called the familiar journalists by names, giving them a word for the question: Laura, Tom, James ... Passiness itself.

“We believe that in future relations the issue of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland will be decided,” she said. “No one really wants Backstop to be really used.”

In negotiations on the agreement - “significant progress”, although “some difficulties” remained. She promised to cooperate with Brussels and colleagues in the EU countries to "solve these problems as soon as possible." He hopes for a “good agreement” between Britain and the EU. Like, time itself will put everything in place.

In the neighboring, French, the hall is already in full swing of the briefing of Emmanuel Macron. I squeezed closer to the rostrum, placed against the background of the French tricolor and the blue flag of the EU.

“This is Fake News,” Macron answered the British reporter. He asked if France would introduce a visa for British tourists after Brexit.

“I want to reassure everyone about the“ next day ”, I do not intend to sow panic,” he said, commenting on the speculation of some British newspapers. - Taking all measures in the absence of an agreement is our responsibility. Exactly so that a normal life continues, so that this does not affect flights, ships, transport and business. But with new rules. "

Italians - violators of financial discipline

On the same floor, in the depths of the corridor, there is an Italian hall. I go there. The briefing of the Government Chairman Giuseppe Comte began. The question asked in English answers Italian. As far as I managed to understand what was said, at this EU summit about Russia there was almost no question. The agenda is different.

At the same time, Comte recalled the position of the current Italian government. It believes that sanctions should not be endless, because they are an instrument for achieving certain goals. On October 24, when Conte will fly to Moscow, he will first seek expanding the Italian business cooperation with small and medium -sized enterprises in Russia, which are not affected by sanctions, as well as with civil society. But he made it clear that Italy would coordinate her decisions with the EU. Everything has its time, he said. And the European Commission will come to the point that it will cancel these sanctions.

Italy was not on the agenda of the EU summit, but it fell under the fire of criticism - first of all, for the violation of the financial discipline of the Eurozone. The right -Poopulistic government began to fulfill its pre -election promises, increasing the budget expenditures. Contain had to explain in the conversations one on one with an angel Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, and the European Commission sent a letter to Rome, which officially demanded “explanations” about his “unprecedented” budget rampant. Brussels asked to give an answer until Seek Monday October 22 and threatened to reject the project of the Italian budget of 2019.

The Chancellor of the presiding in the Austrian EU Sebastian Kurtz, whom we met on the sidelines, said that Italy is moving away from the norms of Maastricht (established for the countries of the Eurozone), which means that she does not fulfill her obligations. Other EU members do not want to face the risk of taking on her debts. Italian debt (131% of GDP) is now the second after the duty of Greece, which had to be saved by the whole world. Italy is a member of the eurozone and is unlikely to decide to part with the euro ...

Intractable Chinese

The guard before the turnstile of the transition between the buildings of the EU Council slowed me down and asked to wait ten minutes.

“Now, only the Chinese will pass,” he explained.

Participants in the AMMIT Summit, which opened immediately after the end of the meeting of EU leaders, had already begun to arrive in the European building. But only for the head of the Chinese government Lee Kaqiana, such enhanced security measures were provided. Then, throughout the entire forum, he will be surrounded by special care and emphasized attention.

Almost all the main participants in the hall before the seeding will try to transfer with him a pair of welcome phrases. He, accompanied by Tusk, opens the procession along the red carpet around the giant globe for official group photography. Merkel, May and Macron are somewhere nearby, the lonely Medvedev is almost in the tail. The Chinese in the center of the group photo, which, for the vulgar effect, in addition to the army of photographers, removes the drone barracking in the glazed space.

Against the backdrop of the protectionism of Donald Trump and the trade war declared by the Americans, Europe turns east - to China and the “Asian tigers”.

On the way to the Aem meetings, Merkel approached reporters:

- Europe and Asia want to establish the world based on the order. We produce almost two -thirds of the global GDP, we account for two -thirds of the volume of world trade and two -thirds of the population of the planet. Our goal is to establish a connection, and therefore we conclude free trade agreements. For several years now there has been such an agreement between the EU and South Korea. A year ago, an agreement was signed with Japan, and now with Singapore. This is a sign that a situation is being created in the world when countries wish mutual benefits, that is, which is beneficial to one, beneficial. Of course, we must promote human rights and our values ​​in bilateral relations, since our countries are different.

And the Chancellor of Austria Kurtz emphasized the commitment of the participants of the Aem Summit principles of free trade, which "some in the world pose into question", hinting at Trump.

But with China, Europeans have a difficult conversation. At the forum, European leaders tried to persuade the Chinese prime minister to increase the volume of foreign investment in the country's economy in order to withstand US protectionism. But they came across the usual resistance of Beijing in terms of state subsidies. The leaders of France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy and the European Commission met each separately with Lee Katsyan, hoping to expand the access of the EU companies to the second economy of the world. But no breakthrough. China does not allow direct European investments almost nowhere except capital construction. From the final communique, a call to the cessation of state subsidizing trade also fell out.

“Some gestures are made, but we must move on,” said the European official, commenting on the results of the negotiations.

Medvedev in Brussels

Russia is a member of Asem. Therefore, Dmitry Medvedev flew to participate in the forum in Brussels. He behaved emphasized modestly, kept aside. Before the meeting, until the presidents and the premieres were settled and actively communicated with each other, he did not participate in the general party of the leaders of the states and sat alone in his place, busily leafing through the papers. And only once the camera captured how he rose towards Macron, who approached him to talk.

Medvedev made a speech at a plenary meeting, had several bilateral meetings, in particular, Merkel, chairman of the European Commission Junker and Switzerland. He spoke about the visit and meetings, having already left the EU Council, at a press conference in the Egmont Palace, visiting his Belgian colleague Charles Michel.

First of all, he stated the “absolute degradation” of relations between Russia and the European Union, which he spoke about at the meeting of the Junker. Russia -ES summites have been gone for several years, the relations between ministers are complicated. Meanwhile, the European Union remains the largest partner of Russia, and Russia for it is the fourth most important partner.

Medvedev talked a lot about the sale of Russian gas to Europe. This was the topic of his conversation with Merkel. Of course, the Nord Stream 2 and “all kinds of statements about it that sounds from the ocean” were discussed. The prime minister did not specify what Merkel said about this. But he noted that “the fight against Russian natural gas on the European continent is an example of unfair economic competition, which is dressed in clothes of some political concern for European partners.” This is “just ugly and wrong”, because Russia does not bear any insidious plans for Europe.

He noted that in recent years, half the turnover with the EU has been lost, and the EU losses, according to Moscow, are about 100 billion euros.

“For us, all these sanctions are not a matter of life and death. This is time. The second - we did not begin to introduce these sanctions and not to stop their action. European partners want to stop them - let them stop, do not want to live and continue to live with sanctions, ”he said after negotiations with the Prime Minister of Belgium. And he recalled that the Soviet Union lived under sanctions for decades. But he added that there is nothing good in this.

The owner of the meeting was extremely polite and amiable. He spoke out for maintaining a dialogue with Moscow, even with all the contradictions in order to reduce tension, to avoid escalation, which is detrimental to safety. And he recalled that for Europe, "sanctions are not an end in itself."

Medvedev and Michelle and then spoke different languages. One rested on economic damage, the loss of monetary benefits, without delving into the causes of the degradation of relations. The other emphasized that the sanctions were for a reason, and was worried about safety ...