Brussels, 04/02/2009 (Agence Europe) - European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and nine commissioners (Verheugen, Ferrero-Waldner, Piebalgs, Almunia, Barrot, Kallas, Tajani, Ashton and Dimas) will travel to Moscow on Friday 6 February for talks with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his government. The commissioners will hold bilateral meetings with Russian ministers, and this will be followed by a joint plenary session. They will also meet Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. On the agenda will be the economic and financial crisis, energy security (and the lessons to be drawn from the recent gas crisis), Russia's accession to the WTO, the EU's future Eastern Partnership with its eastern neighbours, climate change, international political issues (including Georgia) and bilateral EU-Russia questions, in particular the on-going negotiations on the new partnership framework agreement. This will be the third meeting of its kind, after those of April 2004 and December 2005.
Financial and economic crisis. The aim is to bring positions closer together and, if possible, to reach a common position on the response to the global crisis ahead of the G20 summit in London on 2 April. Already there is agreement between the two sides on several important points, such as the need to reform the international financial system and the important role of the merging economies, the Commission says. The Commission would like Russia, which has suffered greatly during the current crisis, also to undertake not to resort to protectionist measures. Moscow recently increased some import duties to protect its industry, particularly the car and steel sectors. By acting in this way, Moscow is failing to respect the spirit of the G20 declaration adopted in Washington last November, according to the Commission, which will raise the matter on Friday.
Energy. The recent gas crisis and its consequences will, clearly, be discussed. Although “disappointed” by both Moscow and Kiev, the Commission does not intend to become involved in the blame game over who was responsible for what, but will undertake this trip to Moscow in a “pragmatic and future-oriented” frame of mind, taking care to ensure that the problem does not arise in the future, say Commission sources. One thing is clear, however, “the crisis has shown the importance of the Energy Charter treaty,” these sources say. The principles of the Energy Charter treaty (transparency, reciprocity, respect for the rule of law, protection of investments, third party access, dispute settlement, etc) are so important that they will, in any event, be built in to the energy chapter of the new framework agreement the EU is currently negotiating with Russia, the Commission stresses. On Tuesday, Russian Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Chizhov told press that the Energy Charter treaty was pointless and suggested that it be replaced by an instrument that was more binding on transit countries (see EUROPE 9832). The Commission response is that there is no question of giving up these principles in the future partnership agreement with Moscow. The Commission, however, backs the Russian proposal to extend the EU-Russia early warning system to Ukraine. The recent gas crisis has demonstrated the usefulness of extending this system to transit countries, the Commission says. Developing alternative transport routes for carrying Russian gas to Europe will also be broached in Moscow. Russia would like the EU to support the Northstream and Southstream gas pipeline projects, both of which are being led by Gazprom. The Commission, however, is backing the Nabucco project which will link producer countries on the Caspian with Austria, via Turkey, without going through Russia. Moscow believes Nabucco will only prove viable if it can count on Iranian gas, according to Chizhov. “The West has to make up its mind whether it should bomb Iran or buy its gas,” he commented.
WTO accession. The Commission backs swift accession by Russia to the World Trade Organisation, but says that several pending bilateral trade issues will have to be settled beforehand: (inflated) export duties on Russian timber, restrictive measures taken by Moscow in the area of health and plant health, rights to overfly Siberia. It is in Russia's interest to get rid of these obstacles quickly because its accession to the WTO is a precondition for the launch of negotiations with the EU on a free-trade agreement, Commission sources point out. In the meantime, Russian authorities still do not seem fully convinced of the value of belonging to the WTO. “There is still no consensus” on this issue, acknowledged Chizhov, stressing that Moscow would continue strongly to defend its national interests in negotiations.
Eastern Partnership. The Commission will brief the Russian government on the Eastern Partnership, which the EU hopes will strengthen the eastern dimension of its neighbourhood policy (ENP) with regard to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus.
Moscow is following this initiative “very closely” but does not believe it will have a great impact, said Ambassador Chizhov. He above all notes with interest that the Eastern Partnership will not have significant budgetary means. “EU experience shows that what has no budget line usually does not fly very high”, he said. Russia has nothing against the possible integration of Belarus into the ENP and the Eastern Partnership. “On the contrary”, said Mr Chizhov, “we have always encouraged the Union to put an end to the country's isolation”. (H.B./transl.rt)