Russia, EU to unveil partnership accord at Tuesday summit

By ALEX NICHOLSON
.c The Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) – Russia and the European Union are expected to unveil a
broad partnership accord at a summit Tuesday that represents an
attempt to reinvigorate relations after a troubled year.

As the EU swelled last year with 10 new members, most of them from the
former Soviet bloc, the EU’s policy is seen to have become more
assertive toward Russia.

The meeting in Moscow is the first since a stormy summit last fall in
The Hague, Netherlands, when Russia accused the EU of fomenting street
protests in Ukraine and partnership negotiations fell apart.

EU officials say they do not want another breakdown and are ready to
agree to a less-than-perfect accord, hoping to nail down outstanding
issues in the months ahead.

The partnership should benefit both sides: The EU will get a forum to
launch economic cooperation with an energy-rich partner that is hungry
for Western investment.

Yet the agreement to be unveiled Tuesday comes against the backdrop of
lingering mistrust between the two powers.

“Many Russian leaders now view the EU as a hostile power that is
expanding into Russia’s traditional sphere of influence,” says
Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Research, a London
think tank, in a recent paper on the EU’s relations with its eastern
neighbors.

“The EU, meanwhile, has become increasingly concerned about Russia’s
eroding democratic standards and weak regard for human rights.”

In a statement prior to Tuesday’s summit, European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso said he wants relations to be taken to a
“new and higher level.”

Barroso is hoping the approval of a long-delayed partnership accord,
setting out four “common spaces” between Russia and the 25-member
bloc, will provide the necessary momentum.

The wide-ranging pact encompasses security, economic and humanitarian
issues and aims to enhance cooperation in transport, energy and
regional conflict resolution as well as harmonizing legal standards
and promoting trade and investment.

Until recently, EU officials said they were far from a partnership
deal. On the eve of the approval ceremony, key disputes remained but
the West Europeans insisted they will be resolved in the months ahead.

One difference is over Russia’s demand for an easing of visa
rules. The EU will only agree to that if Russia takes back Russian
nationals and others who entered the EU illegally from Russia. Also,
the EU wants Russia to phase out Siberia overflight charges that West
European airlines now pay to Moscow.

The partnership aims to craft a single EU-Russian market with no
barriers to trade and to introduce economic reforms, competitiveness
and good economic governance in Russia. It also wants more cooperation
on investments, financial services, telecommunications, transport,
energy and the environment.

The EU also plans programs to foster democracy, the rule of law, human
rights, an independent judiciary and media and cooperation on
combating terrorism, organized crime and corruption.

The EU is particularly interested in assisting Russia to end “frozen
conflicts” in the former Soviet region – Trans-Dniester in Moldova,
Abkhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia, and Nagorno-Karabakh in
Azerbaijan – by taking humanitarian and economic aid to those regions,
and to tackle poverty and human rights abuses there that the EU sees
as causes of instability.

Russia is the EU’s fifth largest trade partner, with bilateral trade
totaling US$125 billion (96.55 billion) in 2004. Russian exports
amounted to US$91 billion (70.29 billion), the lion’s share accounted
for by oil and gas deliveries. Natural gas monopoly Gazprom provides a
quarter of Europe’s gas, while 85 percent of the 4 million barrels of
oil per day that Russia – the world’s No. 2 exporter – sends outside
the former Soviet Union went to Europe in 2004.

Energy is expected to become an even bigger focus in negotiations
starting next month, when the United Kingdom – whose North Sea oil and
gas fields are dwindling – takes over the EU presidency.

05/09/05 14:35 EDT

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress