Luxembourg, 23/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - Recalling that, as to whether Russia was part of Europe, Robert Schuman had replied, in May 1951, "obviously yes", Bernard Zamaron, Delegate General at the Robert Schuman Centre for Europe, pleaded in favour of a "Pan-European Schuman Plan". Welcoming the outcome of the ministerial meeting on the "Nordic Dimension", in Luxembourg on 9 April with the participation, in particular of Russia, Poland and the Baltic States (see EUROPE of 11 April, p.6), Mr. Zamaron said: "What we need with Russia, to link it to Europe (…), is, like the European Coal and Steel Community, an institutional community of a fundamental sector of common interest, which could today be transport and energy". As, he said, it is time to renew, "in the framework of an enlarged Europe" of the "Nordic Dimension", "an experiment that succeeded so well" (that of the ECSC). According to him, the EU has today to accomplish a "bold act" towards Russia, "and more broadly, the Community of Independent States", so that these countries "which are also looking towards Europe" no longer feel "on the sideline of the large Community enterprise, even though presently they cannot take part in all its dimensions". Over and above questions that "full membership (of these countries) would raise, let's begin with the Great East, like the Founding Fathers began on the Rhein, with "concrete achievements", firstly creating de facto solidarity" Mr. Zamaron suggested. According to him, by launching such a project in the field of energy and transport, "we would thus in a single sweep, in equality and the respect of shared sovereignties within common institutions, cover: the problems of the supply in gas and oil (…), the safety of nuclear installations, the setting up of major road, rail and waterway axes which must be powerful factors for the development of a transcontinental economy, linking us to the future large market of Asia".