Brussels, 03/11/2003 (Agence Europe) - The EU Troika - Council President Franco Frattini, Brian Cowen who will take over from him under Irish Presidency, CFSP High Commissioner Javier Solana and European Commissioner Günter Verheugen - has prepared the EU/Russia Summit in Moscow to be held on 6 November in Rome (see EUROPE of 28 October, p.6, and 30 October, p.5). On 29 October, at the request of Günter Verheugen, the Commissioners concerned, with Chris Patten in the lead, held an exchange of views in Brussels on the unfolding of the Troika and the priorities of the Summit (with EUROPE of 24 October, p.6, on the subject of the European Parliament debate on the summit, with Commissioner Chris Patten and Council President Franco Frattini).
In Moscow, Commissioner Verheugen held a series of meetings including one very constructive meeting with Foreign Minister Ivanov and another, which had not been foreseen, with Vladimir Putin. During the latter meting, which was held at Mr Putin's request, the Russian president stressed his wish to work with the European Commission as an equal partner - which is a highly significant gesture for the Commission. With the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Günter Verheugen prepared a concept paper for the Common Economic Area, which is to be one of the priorities of the EU/Russia partnership. This paper, intended for the Rome Summit, comprises far-reaching proposals and mainly covers aspects such as the opening of markets or approximation of legislation. In this context, the prospect of Russia's membership to the WTO will obviously play a major role (negotiations on the conditions for Moscow's membership to the World Trade Organisation continue to stumble over access to the Russian energy market: see EUROPE of 18 October, p.15, on the subject of Commissioner Lamy's visit to Moscow). The other major themes of this summit are expected to be political - the situation in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Iran - - questions on which the stances taken by both the EU and Russia are similar. As far as Chechnya is concerned and the problem of human rights in general, close observers consider that a Union enlarged to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe will no doubt tend to put greater pressure on Moscow.
During their talks in Moscow, the European discussion partners did not tackle the Khodorkovski affair but may still do so during the Rome Summit, if only to stress (as Commissioner Verheugen did last week in Moscow) how important it is for the Russia-Europe relationship to keep the climate as stable and predictable as possible in Russia. In Moscow, several Russian partners again told the European delegation of their recurring concern about the possible impact on Russia of EU enlargement (Commissioner Verheugen is said to have pointed out that the advantages of enlargement outweigh the disadvantages, recalling above all that, according to experts, the reduction of customs duties would bring in EUR 60 million), the Wider Europe initiative (Russia fears that it will reduce its own status as a preferred Union partner), the rights of Latvian Russians (this question was raised at length and insistently at the Duma but is not expected to be among the priorities of the Russian government for the Summit in Rome).