Brussels, 12/04/2007 (Agence Europe) - In the case of the Russian ban on Polish meat, Moscow has just responded to the detailed information received from the European Commission on 29 March, reassuring Russian authorities of the fitness for consumption of agricultural and plant products from the EU in general and Poland in particular (see EUROPE 9398). The spokesman for Commissioner Markos Kyprianou confirmed on Thursday that the Commission had received a “quite positive” letter from Moscow on the work that Poland had carried out over the last days and weeks to meet Russian demands. The letter was generally positive about the progress Poland had made to respond to Russian concerns, he told press. The letter, however, also mentioned points about which the Russians still had questions, he added. For that reason, the Commission was currently preparing another letter to the Russian authorities (due to be sent at the start of next week) in which it will try to allay Moscow's latest worries and have the ban lifted as quickly as possible. Mr Kyprianou is also scheduled to meet Russian Agriculture Minister Alexei Gordeyev next week.
On Wednesday, Rosselkhoznadzor, the Russian veterinary and phytosanitary agency, proposed that the Commission and Russian veterinary services carry out joint meat safety inspections to come to an “objective” assessment of the measures taken by Warsaw to correct the deficiencies that the Russian authorities claim to have discovered during joint inspections with Poles in February. For the moment, the European Commission does not believe that such joint inspections will be necessary. “We believe we can provide additional information and clarification to address their concerns, so we have not taken the view so far that it would be necessary to have further inspections,” Mr Kyprianou's spokesman said on Tuesday.
The lifting of the Russian ban would automatically allow the launch of negotiations on a new partnership agreement between the EU and Russia, which remain stalled because of the Polish veto (see EUROPE 9402). (hb)