Brussels, 17/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - Russia and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to examine the possibility of using the euro in their trade and economic relations. This political agreement is taken up in a joint declaration between the EU and Russia in the framework of their half-yearly summit. According to Reijo Kemppinen, a European Commission spokesman, "the initiative comes from Commission President Romano Prodi, and had been prepared over a few weeks". A high-level working party will soon be set up to study its implementation. Romano Prodi welcomed this project, which, he said was "an excellent opportunity to place trade relations between Russia and the EU on a new footing". For the European Commission, the use of the euro in transactions with Russia would especially allow for the use of the dollar to be avoided in the oil trade, which represents half the products that Russia sells to the EU. The Commission puts up other arguments, such as the re-balancing of Russia's foreign currency reserves, and the tightening of relations between the two partners. In 2000, trade between the two regions amounted to 57.6 billion euro (16.5 billion in EU exports to Russia and 41.1 billion to the EU), which represents an increase of 42.5% in relation to 1999.