RUSSIA’S NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO EU FULL OF IDEAS
RIA Novosti, Russia
Sept 1 2005
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov). —
Veteran diplomat and former deputy Russian foreign finister Vladimir
Chizhov, 52, Russia’s new permanent representative to the European
Union, has plenty to be getting on with.
His many priority tasks include negotiating simplified visa regulations
for Russians traveling to the EU, promoting the energy dialogue, and
drafting a new, comprehensive agreement for the Russian-EU partnership.
At his first press conference in his new capacity, Chizhov, who
attended 13 of the 15 EU-Russia summits, spoke about his plans to
transform his representative office in Brussels into the main center
for coordinating Russia- EU cooperation, which has been expanding.
Chizhov’s appointment came at a difficult time for the EU, with the
“No” votes in the referendums on the European constitution in France
and the Netherlands casting considerable doubts over the future
of the document. But the diplomat is undeterred, saying that it is
not yet clear how the ballyhoo over the European constitution will
affect Russia.
Moscow would like the plans and actions of its partners in Brussels
to be more transparent, as this would simplify joint projects. Yet
high-ranking EU officials have hinted that in the complicated
situation in which the organization finds itself, it is particularly
keen to prove its effectiveness, primarily in its relations with
third countries. Russia would like to take full advantage of the
opportunities this presents.
Since Britain currently holds the EU presidency, the 16th EU-Russia
summit, scheduled for December 4, will be held in London. Chizhov
said that one of the key issues on the agenda would be the
introduction of simpler visa regulations for Russians traveling to EU
countries. Russian experts and their European counterparts have already
made good progress in drafting two key agreements on simplifying visa
regulations and on readmission. Brussels sees a connection between the
two issues and is insisting that Moscow commits to readmitting deported
illegal migrants. Moreover, the EU is referring both to Russians and
to citizens of third countries who have traveled to Europe via Russia.
Chizhov does not rule out the possibility of compromise over these
conditions. Moscow’s new man at the EU is optimistically predicting
that the next stage of the visa negotiations will consider scrapping
visas altogether.
Contrary to what many Western analysts are saying, the EU is not
making progress in this area conditional on Russia signing border
treaties with Estonia and Latvia. Moscow and Brussels both regret
that such treaties have not yet been signed and hope that a solution
will eventually be found to these bilateral problems. “The ball is
in the court of our Baltic colleagues,” Chizhov said.
The diplomat highlighted a relatively new and specific problem that
has emerged within the Russia-EU energy dialogue, namely the need to
work out conditions for trade in nuclear fuel cycle materials.
With the enlargement of the organization last year from 15 to 25
member states, the EU gained an additional 19 nuclear power plants.
Of these, all but one were built by Soviet specialists or with Soviet
technical assistance. (The only exception is the plant in Slovenia
that was built by the company Westinghouse.) Accordingly, these 18
nuclear power plants receive nuclear fuel using the same arrangement
as similar facilities in some veteran EU countries, such as Finland:
Russia supplies the plants with fresh nuclear fuel and retrieves
nuclear waste. The EU and Russia should now formalize the conditions
of trade in nuclear materials in a legally binding document.
Russia’s representative to the EU also does not see any obstacles to
expanding cooperation in the seemingly sensitive and unstable region
of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russia is not laying
claim to a monopoly of influence in the post-Soviet territory and is
willing to develop dialogue with the EU in this area, especially as
some CIS countries plan to join the EU.
As for the “frozen conflicts” in the CIS, namely the Transdniester,
Georgia-Abkhazia, Georgia-Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts,
the EU is keen to help bring an end to these tensions. Chizhov said
that Moscow was willing to discuss conflict settlement proposals,
be they of a political or material nature.
The initial ten-year EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement is
due to expire on December 1, 2007. Article 106 of the agreement says
that the agreement can be automatically renewed, so neither party
expects a legal vacuum in their relations. However, it is evident
today that the agreement no longer reflects the present level of
EU-Russia relations and should be amended.
It is too early to predict with any certainty what form a new agreement
might take, whether it will be a new, comprehensive agreement, a
short-term framework agreement with appendices on specific areas of
cooperation, or a new wording of the old agreement.
But the main issue is that Russia and the European Union will continue
to need each other, and even more so in the future than they do today.