German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, left, attend a meeting of the German Federal Parliament in Berlin on April 26, 2007.
Photo: AP
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EU Foreign Ministers Prepare for Meeting with Russia
// Germany to Lead EU-Russia Summit in Samara on May 18
Yesterday Brussels saw a meeting of EU foreign ministers ahead of the May 18 Russia-EU summit in Samara. At the meeting, the attendees came to the conclusion that in the current situation there can be no discussion of beginning talks about cooperation and partnership agreements between Russia and the EU. In comparison to last December, when only Poland opposed bringing Brussels and Moscow closer, the number of vocal critics of the Kremlin in Europe has grown: in particular, Warsaw has been joined by Vilnius and Tallinn. The new atmosphere is making it unlikely that even Germany, the current president of the EU and a traditional friend of Moscow, will be able to save the day at the summit.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed hope on the eve of yesterday's meeting of EU foreign ministers that "common sense will prevail on both sides." He was speaking, of course, about Russia and the countries of the EU that have a bone to pick with Moscow. Germany has found itself in a delicate position ahead of the Russia-EU summit: it is squeezed between its EU partners in Eastern Europe, whom it cannot refuse to support, and Russia, with whom Berlin is loath to jeopardize its good relations.
The issue turned the meeting yesterday in Brussels into something resembling a standoff between the "pro-Russia" wing of the EU, headed by Germany, and the "anti-Russia" wing, lead by Poland and the Baltic countries. The EU will be represented in Samara only by the head of the Foreign Ministry from the country currently holding the EU presidency, and the EU's 26 other foreign ministers were eager to ensure that Germany's positive orientation towards Russia will not mean that Steinmeier proves overly amenable to his Russian partners on May 18.
Of course, cleaving to the policy of presenting a unified front for the EU, none of the ministers publicly aired their disagreements yesterday. However, Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga was not shy to note that she is not overly satisfied with Berlin's preparations for the summit. Statements from German officials make it clear that Berlin will need to come to terms with the EU's eastern members while still trying to sweeten what may be a bitter pill for Russia.
"We very much need a new agreement about partnership and cooperation with Russia," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a speech before the German parliament yesterday in Berlin. "Before talks can start, we need to resolve a whole raft of problems. But I hope that at least the summit [in Samara] will demonstrate that we are interested in a close strategic partnership with Russia," she continued.
The current failure of relations between Russia and the EU caught many in Brussels by surprise. A senior European diplomat told Kommersant that a month ago many in Brussels thought that the thorniest moments were in the past and that on May 18 Moscow and Brussels would be able to launch talks about a partnership and cooperation agreement. Current EU leader Germany was particularly interested in moving beyond last year's misunderstanding between Russia and Poland and in convincing Warsaw to remove its veto from the start of talks. Simultaneously, Berlin had hoped to convince Moscow to repeal its embargo on the import of Polish meat products, and things seemed to be moving forward when Russia's response was cautiously positive. At the last minute, however, all of the German diplomats' efforts came to naught, and for an unexpected reason: a conflict flared between Russia and Estonia.
According to a Kommersant source in Brussels, Estonia did not even need to ask the EU to do something about Russia. The siege of Estonia's embassy in Moscow, a propaganda campaign in the Russian media, and attacks by hackers on Estonian internet portals all made a strong impression in Brussels. Moreover, they demonstrated that last year's Polish crisis was not an exception to the rule. Even if Poland could be convinced to drop its complaints, the tension between Russia and its European neighbors would not disappear: if not Poland, then Estonia; if not Estonia, then Lithuania; if not Lithuania, then Romania. And so on.
At yesterday's meeting in Brussels, Poland declared its firm intention not to rescind its veto. Warsaw's decisiveness was strengthened by a letter it received last week from the Russian Ministry of Agriculture in which Moscow announced that it does not intend to repeal the embargo on the delivery of Polish meat products to Russia.
The next voice to be heard was that of Lithuania. Lithuanian President Valdus Adamkus announced on Sunday that Vilnius will add its veto to Poland's if the "Druzhba" oil pipeline, closed by Russia on July 29, 2006, is not reopened. According to Russia, the closure was necessitated by numerous leaks in the pipeline, but Vilnius is certain that the tap was turned off because the Lithuanian authorities sold the Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery to the Polish company PKN Orlen last year. Mr. Adamkus brought up the question of the pipeline at last year's Russia-EU summit in Finland, but the situation has yet to change. For his part, the Lithuanian president believes that the closure of the pipeline was a political decision, not a technical problem. "If you're driven into a corner and you have no other way out, in despair you might use your last chance," said Mr. Adamkus yesterday in explaining Lithuania's threat to use its veto on talks with Russia. He also said that Lithuania's use of its veto against Russia "will be the last [option] to which Lithuania will be driven – and only in case other means of persuasion do not help."
The EU is also disturbed by agreements between Vladimir Putin, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazabayev, and Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov concerning the construction of a Caspian gas pipeline. Europe had counted on getting the support of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in its attempts to wean itself off its energy dependence on Russia. Moreover, the leaders of Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, who agreed last week in Krakow to create their own energy alliance, are keen to include Nazabayev and Berdymukhammedov in their plans. Vladimir Putin, however, got his foot in the door first, setting Brussels on edge.
Finally, special attention was paid at the meeting in Brussels yesterday to Urmas Paet, Estonia's foreign minister. At the end of last week, Mr. Paet told Kommersant that he will not demand that the Samara summit be put off, since the siege of the Estonian embassy in Moscow has already been broken, but he refused to rule out the possibility that Estonia will add its veto to Poland's if Russia fails to behave itself.
Thus, the European officials who have spent almost half a year working on preparations for a new agreement with Russia have been forced to put their plans aside. Brussels has again returned to the argument that was employed by both sides last December, when Russia and the EU simultaneously declared that they were not particularly interested in new talks about a partnership and cooperation agreement, since the agreement that is currently in force could be extended for as long as necessary. "There is no rush on the adoption of a new agreement. There will be no judicial vacuum – we will be able to simply extend the current agreement," EU spokeswoman Christiana Homan told Kommersant yesterday.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier is due to visit Moscow today on an unplanned visit, during which he will have a last shot at convincing Russia to make some concessions. If Moscow softens its position on only a few questions, the German foreign minister will be able to discharge his responsibilities in Samara in a more friendly key. However, if the Kremlin remains stubbornly ill-disposed to compromise, Mr. Steinmeier will have no choice but to admit that the EU's eastern members are in the right.
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of May 15, 2007
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