Moscow, 10/05/2005 (Agence Europe) - After lengthy technical and diplomatic wrangling over past months and thanks to a last minute agreement reached during the 15th EU/Russia Summit in Moscow, Russia and the European Union reached an agreement, on Tuesday, on the four “roadmaps” that are to guide the two parties during coming years towards the achievement of the four “common spaces” agreed in Saint Petersbourg in May 2003. The “spaces” are: an economic space; a space for freedom, security and justice; a space on external security; and a space for research, education and culture. During the press conference after the summit at the Kremlin, Russia's President Vladimir Putin welcomed the agreement which, in his view, will allow both sides to move forward towards the construction of a “Greater Europe”, a “united Europe without dividing lines”. The agreement should also allow conditions to be set in place for future free movement of persons between the EU and Russia, which remains Moscow's goal, Mr Putin said. “Our final aim is naturally to have a visa-free system for the movement of persons, without lines of demarcation in Europe”. Also, he added, “the formation of a common and unbroken security area will allow a more effective fight against terrorist aggression, xenophobia and racial intolerance”. The president-in-office of the European Council, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker (who headed the EU's delegation in Moscow), told the press that there is such a height of confidence between Russia and the European Union at this time that it can be seen as a “love affair”, even though it is “not easy to negotiate with Vladimir Putin”. Mr Juncker also stressed the economic importance of the agreement, mainly when it comes to the economic area which will make it possible to provide investors with a “safe and foreseeable legal area allowing them full security to make the investment they deem necessary”. The EU and Russia do not agree at all “but we have a very good understanding of our respective positions”, the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said. The EU's High Representative for CFSP, Javier Solana, as well as the Commissioners, Benita Ferrero-Waldner (external relations) and Peter Mandelson (trade), also attended the summit.
In response to questions put to him by the press with regard to the possible excuses that Russia may make for the Soviet occupation of Central and Eastern Europe, and especially that of the Baltic States, Vladimir Putin asserted that, as far as he is concerned, the matter was “closed” and that the Russian government would “not go back to it”. The Russian president simply cited a decision by the Soviet Parliament back in 1989 which “condemned” the German-Soviet pact of 1939 opening the way to the annexation of the Baltic States. “The matter is closed. We apologised once and that is enough. What do you want us to do? Apologise every year?”, Mr Putin asked. He also said he was willing to sign the border agreements with Estonia and Latvia, but “only as long as they are not accompanied by idiotic territorial claims”, Mr Putin said, cited by AFP. On the sidelines of the summit, Javier Solana had called for “reconciliation” between Russia and the Baltic States, suggesting that it is time to “look to the future” and to leave the past to the historians.
Until the end of the talks on the four “common spaces”, the main stumbling block was the link to be established between the future bilateral agreement (on the negotiating table) on facilitation procedures for the granting of visas and the EU/Russia re-admission agreement (also being negotiated) whereby Russia is to undertake to allow illegal immigrants to re-enter the country after they have crossed Russian territory to enter Community territory illegally. The EU, which hopes the two agreements will take effect simultaneously, seems to have won the day as, one European diplomat states, Europeans and Russians agreed to “establish a parallel between the two negotiations”. The final press release from the summit states that, “together”, the agreement on visa facilitation and the agreement on readmission for illegal migrants will make it possible to promote greater contact between the citizens of the EU and Russia via travel and tourism as well as facilitate business and official travel. Both parties decided to pursue the two negotiations in progress. The final communiqué does not set a timetable for finalising the two agreements but does envisage their being adopted “in the near future”. European diplomats do not rule out the possibility of finalising them by the next EU/Russia Summit to be held in London in October this year. The EU will continue to examine with Russia the conditions for visa-free travel as a long-term perspective.
Road maps adopted on Tuesday illustrated the exact cooperation objectives for each space over the next two to three years, as well as specific and practical measures the EU and Russian can take to attain them. Commitment implementation will be regularly supervised by the EU/Russian Standing Committee.
Economic space. The objective is an open and integrated market between the EU and Russia. Work on this space aims to get rid of trade and investment barriers and to promote reforms and competitiveness by applying principles of non-discrimination, transparency and good governance. The wide range of actions in the road map includes the launch of regulatory dialogue on industrial goods, as well as strengthened cooperation on issues linked to investment, competition and financial services. Improved cooperation in telecommunications, transport and energy is planned, as well as the regulatory standardisation and infrastructure development. The two parties also want to cooperate for allowing Russia to join the WTO. In this context, Commissioner Peter Mandelson (trade) said on Monday that Russian cold close negotiations over the next few months to join the WTO by 2006 on the conditions that it improved coordination between different ministries. The current pace of negotiations is creating the possibility of definitive entry by the beginning of 2006; he declared in a press conference and added that to achieve this they had to speed up negotiations and coordination between Russian government ministries. Mandelson also said that president Vladimir Putin intended to play a greater role.
Freedom/security/justice space the main underpinning principles of this space are democracy, rule of law, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, notably independence of the press and the effective application of common values more rapidly, as well as agreement s on re-admission and greater visa flexibility (see above), which together promote contacts between EU and Russian citizens via tourism, as well as business and official trips Regular consultations on human rights, which were launched in March are part of this space and will be pursued, as well as cooperation in the fight against terrorism, organised crime and corruption
External security space: this established a structure for reinforcing cooperation for resolving frozen conflicts in Europe (Transnistria, Abkhazia, Southern Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh) the EU and Russia also decided to strengthen cooperation in non-proliferation, crisis management and civil protection
Research/education/culture space the aim is to better use the potential of European and Russian researchers and cultural and intellectual heritage by identifying the measures to take for promoting economic growth and tight cooperation in education, notably in the convergence of university systems and qualifications