Brussels, 31/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - The fourth biggest Russian city, Yekaterinburg, will host a not particularly exciting 31st EU-Russia summit on 3-4 June following on from the one in December 2012.
The cooperation agreement, energy, trade, human rights and visas, regional and international issues, North Africa, the Middle East and, in particular, Syria are on the agenda for the meeting, which will be attended by European Commissioner for Energy Günther Oettinger, President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton. On the Russian side, Oettingers's counterpart, Alexander Novak, and the minister for the economy, Andrei Belusov, will accompany President Vladimir Putin and his foreign affairs minister, Sergei Lavrov.
The summit will begin with an informal dinner on Monday evening, which will focus on world economic issues - with particular emphasis on the G20 process under Russian presidency and the next G20 summit in St Petersburg at the beginning of September. The civil war in Syria, on which Russians and Europeans continue to be divided, will also occupy a large part of Monday's discussions.
On Tuesday, a plenary session will be dedicated to negotiations for the future partnership and cooperation agreement - on which negotiations were launched in 2008, and which aims to replace the old 1994 agreement that governs political cooperation, sectoral dialogues and trade and investment relations between the EU and Russia. The EU and Russia want to use the occasion of the summit to give momentum to the negotiations that have been dragging on at length. Barroso spoke- during the last biennial meeting between the Commission and the Russian government at the end of March - of his desire to conclude this agreement in 2014, and thus to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the current cooperation agreement in the best of ways.
All the files on bilateral cooperation - including bilateral trade, energy, transport and mobility, and visas - will also be dealt with in the plenary session. Nothing in particular is to be highlighted on the energy chapter in which the tumultuous relations - calmed by the signing in December of the roadmap on EU-Russia energy cooperation until 2050 - are not being helped by Russia's refusal to comply with the rules of the third package on liberalisation of the internal energy market. On trade, the EU will signal its impatience at Russia's non-respect of some of its commitments on liberalisation, and will warn of its intention to launch its first WTO proceedings against Russia if Moscow has not abolished it discriminatory measures on automobile imports by July - in other words, its decree on recycling charges for imported cars.
For the political chapter, freedom, security and justice - including judicial cooperation, crisis management and counter-terrorism, human rights and fundamental freedoms (including the rule of law and civil society) - will also be discussed in plenary. The EU leaders will again signal their concern about the repression of civil society in Russia, says a source close to the matter.
International and regional issues (Central Asia, Moldova/Transnistria, Georgia and Nagorno Karabakh) will be the focus of discussions over a lunch - which will close the summit at midday on Tuesday. (EH/transl.fl)