Brussels, 23/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Swedish Presidency presented during the General Affairs Council, on Monday, its working programme for the EU common strategies vis-à-vis Russia and the Ukraine, while Mr Solana strongly criticised the failings of these common strategies and the "routine" exercise that is the working documents of the Presidencies (see yesterday's EUROPE, p.9). The Swedish working document is placed under the sign of the "Nordic dimension of the European Union", with as conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs on the Nordic dimension foreseen for the 9 April in Luxembourg. This text is based, as with the previous, on four guidelines defined by the European Council in June 1999 by adopting the common strategy for Russia:
(1) consolidate democracy, the rule of law, and the institutions: the Presidency proposes to continue the actions underway, but also "to draft a plan spread out over several Presidencies in view of supporting the efforts by Russia to strengthen and reform the legal institutions", to support the local and regional independent media, as well as NGOs…
(2) integrate Russia into a European economic and social area: an "economic dialogue at high level" will be published, with a meeting between the Finance Ministers planned for the spring (see EUROPE of 20 January, page 6 and 8). The Presidency also hopes that the EU, encourage: - investments by international financial institutions, and notably the EIB; - a deeper dialogue between Russian and European trade unions; - the efforts to find solutions to long lasting trade disputes.
(3) cooperation in view of enhancing the stability and security in Europe and the world: the EU-Russia summit, which will take place in May in Moscow, will be the opportunity "to begin a dialogue at the highest level". The Presidency would like to "further consolidate this dialogue, notably with regards to the CFSP",
and "study the means of establishing broader dialogue with Russia on conflict prevention and on long term security issues". The Presidency also hopes to pursue dialogue on disarmament and non-proliferation.
4) Response to common challenges on the European continent. This involves pursuing dialogue on the consequences of enlargement in general, and on Kaliningrad in particular (see EUROPE of 18 January, p.10), but also on the environment, nuclear safety and justice and home affairs.
Whereas Javier Solana hopes the common strategies will not be officially published and used as internal documents, the Swedish Presidency proposes that the work of compilation undertaken to list all the activities and means devoted by the Commission and the Member States to Russia should constitute a public data bank, "which would make it possible to give a complete overview of the EU's activities towards Russia and to improve transparency as well as complementarity".