Brussels, 28/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Despite their stated willingness to step up their economic and commercial interdependence, Europeans and Russians are struggling to overcome their differences.
In addition to the Ukrainian issue and international issues, the new cooperation agreement, the partnership for modernisation, energy and trade were, as usual, on the agenda of the 32nd EU-Russia summit held in Brussels on 28 January. On the subject of the economy, Presidents Herman Van Rompuy (European Council) and José Manuel Barroso (of the Commission) and their Russian guest Vladimir Putin were once again unable to hide the fact that, despite strong economic interdependency and Barroso's dreams of seeing a “common economic area stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok”, the old differences remain.
Matters of divergence in the commercial and energy fields have become “permanent”, Barroso admitted. These include over-flight of Siberia by European airlines, a subject that has been on the table since his first summit in 2004 with “[his] friend”, Putin. Summit after summit, “we must agree to disagree”, the European Commission's president joked. On Tuesday, on the subject of trade, the EU once again showed impatience regarding Russia's failure to comply with certain of its liberalisation commitments at the WTO. Putin, for his part, did not fail to point out the Russian side's irritation regarding European anti-dumping measures against a number of Russian products. Early January, moreover, Russia had triggered procedure at the WTO against EU anti-dumping measures targeting Russian exports of ammonium nitrate and steel products.
On the chapter of energy, where relations remain tense, misunderstanding continues between Brussels and Moscow on the rules of the 3rd package for liberalisation of the EU's internal energy market. Although Putin recognised the continued differences on this issue, he for once played this down when addressing the press, speaking of differences being limited to “technical issues” and saying he was confident that they could be resolved, as in the case of the problems that cropped up for the Nord Stream gas pipeline. “With time”, he underlined, “there is always progress even on the trickiest issues”. Barroso, for his part, explained again to his Russian guest that the 3rd package - and its principle of unbundling the activities of energy provision and transport activities - is “important” for the EU and that “it is not seeking to discriminate against Russian companies but is addressing all EU and also all third country companies”. He did, however, specify that Brussels and Moscow are “ready for constructive dialogue on energy standards”. Europeans and Russians agreed that a working group should be set in place to discuss the legal and technical issues in order to reduce dissension over the South Stream gas pipeline project (see EUROPE 11001).
Apart from these differences, European and Russian leaders - who were under time constraints within a reduced format summit - discussed ways to reactivate the laborious talks launched in 2008 for the new partnership and cooperation agreement which aims to replace the old agreement of 1994 in order to govern political cooperation, sector-specific dialogues and trade and investment relations. Addressing the press, Van Rompuy hoped “sufficient progress” would be made in the spring to rekindle the process on the occasion of the next bilateral summit in Sotchi on 3 June.
The leaders discussed Eastern Partnership at length as well as the association agreements proposed by the EU and the customs union between Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia. They thus reached agreement on pursuing bilateral consultation at expert level on the association agreements of the Eastern Partnership and the economic consequences that these would have on both parties. Putin, speaking before the press on several occasions, highlighted the potentially negative impact of the Partnership on Russian industry, saying: “This is not a political question, it is the economic interest that takes pride of place”. “Russia has always respected and will always respect the sovereign rights of our partners. We respect the countries of the former USSR and all the others. Each country must take the decisions that concern its fundamental rights in an independent fashion” (our translation throughout), he stressed, adding that differences are linked to the consequences that signing the agreements will have on the Russian economy. On several occasions, Europeans (during Ukraine's withdrawal from signature of the association agreement) accused Russia of putting pressure on Kiev and of not respecting its sovereignty. On Tuesday, President Putin nonetheless pledged that the preferential gas contract promised to Ukraine would not be reviewed if the Ukrainian government were to change.
Finally, European and Russian leaders discussed the human rights situation in Russia and in the EU and international issues, such as Syria, Afghanistan, the Middle East peace process and counter-piracy in the Horn of Africa. Europeans and Russian signed a joint statement to combat terrorism, reaffirming their firm intention to cooperate in the fight against terrorism, based on respect of rule of law and human rights. (EH/CG/transl.jl)