Brussels, 24/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced, on Wednesday 23 November, that the European Union is willing to help Russia become “more European”, and to strengthen its ties with Russia, if the latter so wishes. Addressing the European Parliament foreign affairs committee, he explained that relations with Russia must be placed on a firm political basis and that it is necessary for work to gather pace in order to come to a partnership and association agreement that will be a basis for relations. The minister specified that delays incurred on this subject were due to the effort made by Moscow to join the WTO. Now that this has been done, he said, talks may be reactivated. Partnership, he said, must be accompanied by conditionality in order to bring Russians to maturity. He also welcomed the possible facilitation of local traffic at the border of the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad (see related article), in the hope that the vote on this subject would come before the end of the Polish Presidency.
On the subject of Belarus, described by the minister as an “annoying” neighbour, he said it was necessary to continue to encourage Minsk to carry out reforms. To achieve this, Poland plans an “assistance package for a democratic Belarus”, once the political prisoners are released and reform efforts undertaken. This would be a technical and financial assistance package to help the country become democratic and give greater clout to civil society, Sikorski said.
The Polish minister also trusts that the verdict against the former prime minister of Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, will not prevent Ukraine advancing along the road to democracy. The association agreement, he said, is a very precious stimulus, a persuasive way to convince the Ukrainian authorities. Sikorski stressed that the association agreement was a very strong, highly powerful instrument and that Ukraine should comply with the principles set out in the agreement in terms of democracy and rule of law. He underlined that the agreement will allow Kiev to “transform” as the country should adopt 60% of the acquis communautaire. (CG/transl.jl)