Brussels, 01/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - The tripartite meeting between the EU, Russia and Lithuania on Kaliningrad took place in Brussels on Monday. It was not fruitful, Diego de Ojeda, spokesman for the European Commission, announced on Tuesday. "We have not managed to reach an agreement as hoped", he admitted, adding that the Commission considered it had made "sufficient effort" to meet the Russian demands. On the Russian side, there is more optimism. "We had the impression that the Commission was going to make a step forward", diplomatic sources said. The Commission is to present to Coreper, on Wednesday, the results of the meeting before continuing discussions with Russia with a view to the next trilateral meeting to be held on Monday or Tuesday next.
The three parties have met every week for the past month in an attempt to finalise the agreement on transit to and from the Kaliningrad enclave via Lithuanian territory, as concluded at the EU/Russian Summit of November 2002 (see EUROPE of 13 November).
Whereas last week differences subsisted on the attribution criteria of the "faciliated transport documents" (FTD/FRTD) to and from the enclave (see EUROPE of 26 March), this week the disagreement seems to focus on the procedure for issuing FRTDs (facilitated rail transport documents). The EU wants an a priori passenger control carried out by Lithuanian authorities before the FRTD is issued, but the Russians want an a posteriori control in order to avoid the administrative burdens and slowness of such a procudure. In any case, the three parties are continuing their work so that the regulation can enter into force on 1 July 2003 as planned.