The bluff of membership. To what extent can the public grasp the significance and new dimension that co-operation between the EU and Russia is to assume? The texts to have emerged from the 3 October Summit, bringing together Vladimir Putin, Guy Verhofstadt and Romano Prodi are fairly explicit. But we need to dig deeper than that to understand what is looming and what, on the other hand, has been abandoned.
What's been abandoned is firstly the bluff of Russia's future accession to the EU as full member. This was an idea that never did have any foundation; yet, a certain number of European politicians, and prominent ones at that, gave the impression of taking it seriously. Never would Russia contemplate abandoning sovereignty that EU accession implies, never would it submit the conduct of its State-owned companies to the control of the European Commission, never would it agree to agricultural prices being set by Brussels, nor its trade policy being subject to prior approval by Mario Monti, nor that the euro should become its currency managed in Frankfurt. For its part, the EU could never "digest" a colossus of that size, that would totally destabilise it and transfer to Europe an immense slice of Asia, as far as the sea borders with Japan, with the connected problems of Chechnya, relations with Belarus and so forth.
Unhurried study. Second good-riddance: the terms "free-trade area" have vanished from the common language, they are to be found in no parts of the Summit's texts. This is a positive development, which proves that the European Commission has freed itself of the virus that infected Sir Leon Brittan (who dreamt of such "areas" with the whole world). The concept of free-trade is appropriately replaced by the "concept of a common European economic space", that made its appearance at the previous Summit (17 May in Moscow) and that will now be studied. But calmly and with caution: a high-level joint group will meet twice a year, and the EU/Russia Summit will make an initial evaluation of its work in October 2003. As we see, neither party is in a hurry. The group's brief does not refer to the total liberalisation of trade, but of "greater economic integration and alignment of legislation". Abolition of obstacles to trade will meanwhile by "speeded-up" through better application of the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement.
A genuine partnership. Having abandoned the fiction (membership) and having begun an unhurried study of the project for a distant future (common economic space), the EU/Russia Summit focused on realistic goals. The main outcome - taking account, as we must, of parallel talks between Vladimir Putin and the NATO authorities - is the move for Russia from the role of "potential partner" to that of "actual partner" in world policy. According to an observer, Vladimir Putin's latest passage in Brussels (EU and NATO) represented the true en of the "Cold War". It is essentially through his joining in the fight against international terrorism that Putin secured the recognition he was seeking. The EU and Russia have undertaken to "jointly deploy" their efforts against not only international terrorism but also "international organised crime, drug trafficking, illegal immigration"; and the fight against money laundering is mentioned a little further down the text. In exchange for his commitments,, Vladimir Putin secured (I'm not sure this will please everyone) that the Chechen affair be viewed from the point of view of combating terrorism, while confirming his intention of seeking a "political settlement". The specific text relating to international terrorism revolves, beyond statements of principle, around preparing systematic information exchange on a list of subjects that goes very far: activities and movements of people suspected of belonging to a terrorist network, transport papers the authenticity of which is doubtful, deliveries of weapons, explosives or "dual purpose" equipment, suspect financial transactions, chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism. The political part of the general declaration and the specific declaration on strengthening dialogue and co-operation on political and security matters confirm that Russia is now finally considered as being a democratic country (Mr. Putin subscribed to phrases such as: "bolstering a society based on the respect of democratic principles and human rights", "pluralism of the media is an essential element of a democratic and modern society"), and speaking of "operational" co-operation to the extent of envisaging "Russia's possible participation in crisis-management operations, of a civilian or military nature".
The most concrete aspect of the results of the Summit is however that of the economic partnership in general and energy in particular. We shall turn to that tomorrow.
(F.R.)