Brussels, 21/01/2008 (Agence Europe) - Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced in Moscow on 31 January that Poland was ready to remove its veto on the opening of negotiations between the EU and Russia on concluding a new enhanced partnership agreement to replace the existing Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). Warsaw imposed its veto because of the Russian ban on importing Polish meat. Following the lifting of this ban in December 2007, Poland no longer wishes to obstruct the launch of talks on the new agreement, Sikorski announced on Monday after a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
The door is not yet fully open for EU-Russia negotiations, however. Lithuania, without speaking about a “veto”, is still calling for a solution to the problem of Russia's closure of the Druzhba oil pipeline in July 2006. The United Kingdom, too, could be tempted to link its approval to the settling of the present tension surrounding the British Council in Russia. “The dossier is not ripe yet. There are still some open, questions,” said a spokeswoman for the Slovenian presidency of the EU on Monday 21 January. (H.B.)