Brussels, 28/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - Russian Vice Prime Minister Viktor Khristenko said he was optimistic that his country would soon reach an agreement with the European Commission on the problem of access by old (and noisy) Russian aircraft to EU airports. He hoped the agreement would at least come sufficiently early to allow the Russian companies concerned (according to Russian diplomats, essentially small charter companies, as the national company Aeroflot is not concerned) to gain access to the main tourist destinations in the EU this summer. "There was considerable understanding on the EU side for the Russian problems. The Commission assured us it will be possible to manage the current problems and improve the situation", Mr Khristenko told the press on Wednesday after a meeting with the Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio. "Together with the European Union, we shall find a solution before the beginning of the summer 2002 season", he said.
In accordance with the 1992 directive on the elimination of excessively noisy aircraft from Community airports (which transposes an agreement concluded in 1990 by the member countries of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, ICAO), Russia benefits from a transitional period until 1 April this year for complying with the requirements of Community law and for eliminating the noisiest aircraft from fleets using EU airports. Moscow pointed out that the small Russian companies would not be able to make the investments needed for respecting the 1 April deadline. The Commission has therefore proposed a temporary solution that would consist in exceptionally authorising these charter and cargo planes to land in European airports during the summer 2002 season, on condition that Russia finds common ground with the Member States for the airports concerned by this temporary derogation. Mr Khristenko told the press on Wednesday that the bilateral discussions under way with Member States are making good progress. In his opinion, talks have already been successful with Germany and France, and have "almost ended" with Greece, the Scandinavian countries, the Netherlands and Belgium. Spain and Italy, on the other hand, still pose a problem and contacts should follow, he said. Mr Khristenko ruled out the possibility of using retaliatory measures (as the Russian authorities had done earlier) if no agreement is reached in coming weeks.
Mr Khristenko also attended, on Tuesday, a meeting of the High Level Working Group" (set in place by the EU/Russia summit), responsible for reflecting on the possibility of achieving a Common European Economic Area in the longer term. The aim of this initiative is still uncertain at this stage, but Mr Khristenko believes it should also one day result in the setting in place of "four freedoms" (persons, goods, capital and services) between the EU and Russia - as a practical expression of the long term "strategic partnership" that Moscow hopes to develop with the EU (but without, however, fixing the aim of later belonging to the Union as Ukraine, for example, had done). EU/Russia energy dialogue, on which both parties are actively at work (and which will be one of the central themes of the next EU/Russia Summit, on 28 May in Moscow) should also play a key role in the context of this strategic partnership, said Mr Khristenko.
Discussion themes between Mr Khristenko and Commissioners Pascal Lamy and Chris Patten focused on the prospect of Russia's future WTO membership, the granting (that Moscow is hoping for) of market economy status for Russia in the context of EU anti-dumping procedures, and the safeguard provision set in place by the Commission to counter any increases in steel imports after American protectionist measures. On this last point, Mr Khristenko showed himself to be relatively confident that the European measures will not have an impact on Russian steel exports to the EU. There is an agreement between the EU and Russia that such measures should not endanger existing bilateral steel trade arrangements and agreements, he said.
The problems of the Russian enclave, Kaliningrad, were also discussed in Brussels, but Mr Khristenko preferred not to disclose the content of these talks to the press. The meeting of the EU/Russia Cooperation Committee will be held in Kaliningrad on 15/16 May. It will be entirely devoted to the settlement of transit, visa, security and other issues that face the enclave in the context of enlargement. Time is running short, as the aim is to reach an agreement, if possible, before the end of the accession negotiations (foreseen, in principle, for the end of this year) with the neighbouring candidate countries, especially Poland and the three Baltic States. Mr Khristenko stressed the importance of being able, at the meeting on 15/16 May, to set out very clearly ("black on white") the respective tasks, responsibilities and commitments of all the parties involved in order to resolve the Kaliningrad problem.