13/05/2004 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Chris Patten has just sent the Russian Foreign Affairs Minister, Sergei Lavrov, an information memo, consisting of a four-page summary of plans already put into place by the Commission to date to promote the integration of Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia and Estonia. Russia had asked for this information when it agreed with the EU to extend the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement to the ten new Member States. The European Union had refused to allow the two Baltic States to be called to order over this, when the joint statement was adopted (see EUROPE of 28 April). The memo states that since 1996, the European Commission has spent 13.5 million EUR on the integration of minorities in Latvia, and 10 million EUR in Estonia.