Brussels, 07/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 6 November, a senior European official spoke about the complex relationship between the EU and the Russian Federation. “The relationship between the EU and Russia has always been marked by a certain amount of difference” - for example in terms of energy policy, on the questions of visas and trade, he said. “Now Russia is in the WTO, it tells us to give it time to adapt to WTO rules”, while the EU would like a new trade agreement, he added.
“On other political aspects, we are working quite a lot with them”, the senior official said, explaining that on the Arab Spring “it is not always easy”, on the question of Transnistria and the frozen conflicts, and Nagorno-Karabakh, “we are trying to be as constructive as possible”. “We are closely observed on Ukraine, Belarus, the Balkans. There is a dialogue. We can't say that Russia prevents us from making progress”, he continued. On the subject of Serbia/Kosovo, Russia “is looking at how the dialogue is going to end”, he said, adding that Moscow has not made any aggressive statement on the Ashton/Clinton trip to the Balkans.
He stated that the return to power of Vladimir Putin as president of the Russian Federation “marks a hardening of human rights policy”, and he recalled the EU's concerns at the new laws on associations and NGOs by way of example.
In reply to EUROPE's question on diplomatic relations with Russia, given the European Parliament's resolutions which often criticise Moscow, the official said that “the Parliament is an institution which often raises sudden jumps and jolts” with Europe's partners. “Behind what is said is the fact that that's them, and this is us”, he said, adding, “we too take difficult positions (…) we say it in a different way from the Parliament”. He recalled that during her speech on Russia at the plenary session in September, the high representative had been quite firm (see EUROPE 10688). “Lavrov noticed that we are not always pleasant”, he said (our translation throughout). (CG/transl.fl)