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A New Euro-opponent of Russia
// Lithuania blocked the EU-Russia negotiations
Another breakdown of EU-Russia talks
Yesterday’s session of the Russia-EU Council in Luxemburg turned out complete failure. The European Commission was supposed to receive a mandate to begin talks about a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Russia. But Lithuania vetoed the start of negotiations requiring that the EU oblige Russia to supply oil to the Mazheykyaysky oil refinery, resolve frozen conflicts, and pay damages to the victims of deportation from the Baltic states. For all that, Brussels assured Kommersant that it’ll try to make Lithuania change its mind within the two months left before the Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Four declarations
Yesterday morning the European officials, who gathered in Luxemburg, had the slightest hope that the long-awaited talks about a new Russia-EU agreement would be ever launched. High-ranking officials told Kommersant that the situation was desperate and there was little hope that Lithuania would change its mind and give up its claims. At 4 p.m. the EU Foreign Ministers finished their meeting rendering it failed. Christina Galyak, Press-Secretary to the High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), Javier Solana, told Kommersant that the parties didn’t manage to reach compromise. “26 EU members agreed to start negotiations about a new Russia-EU agreement, but one state took a special position, and we are not able to launch the process unless we reach a consensus,” Ms Galyak said.
Actually Lithuania’s demands had been known before. The Lithuanian Foreign Office suggested that the EU Council pass four declarations when issuing a mandate for the European Commission to negotiate with Russia. The first one concerns energy. According to the sources of Kommersant, Vilnius’ major claim to its EU partners regarded the lack of a common energy policy. Vilnius demanded guarantees from its EU partners that they will defend its interests when entering negotiations with Russia.
That is why, from the viewpoint of Vilnius, the EU should adopt a declaration requiring that Russia stick to the Energy Charta principles, and take a proactive approach when addressing the resuming of oil and gas supplies via the “Druzhba” pipeline. The key problem that worries the government of Lithuania is the situation with the Mazeikiu Nafta oil refinery. 2006 Russia seized to supply it with oil, referring to repair works at the “Druzhba” pipeline. The government of Lithuania repeatedly called that energy blackmail.
Nevertheless, according to a source of Kommersant within the European Commission, Lithuania’s energy claims go beyond the “Druzhba” pipeline. Since the EU obliged Lithuania to close its Ingalinskaya power station in a couple of months, the country will suffer acute energy deficit. That is why Vilnius uses its veto of the EU-Russia talks to persuade Brussels to render assistance to Lithuania.
Besides the energy claims, Vilnius raised a few political ones. For instance, the government of Lithuania states that the settlement of the conflicts on the territory of Georgia and Moldova must be another requirement to be met in order for Moscow and Brussels to start negotiations. This is the matter to be reflected in the second EU declaration, where Brussels is supposed to proclaim committed to give its estimate of the progress when addressing these issues during the talks with Russia.
Account taken of yesterday’s escalation in the zone of the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict, this requirement of Vilnius was rendered highly relevant. At the same time, an official with the Lithuanian Foreign Office acknowledged that this claim aimed at molding the image of Lithuania, rather than directly serving its interests. It was to display Vilnius’ intention to care about other states’ interests, not only its own ones.
Another declaration that Lithuania proposed regards legal cooperation between Russia and the EU member-states. For example, Lithuania brought up the case of a Lithuanian businessman Stanislav Yutsyus in Kaliningrad as another claim to Russia. The government of Lithuania opines that Russia’s law machinery doesn’t make any attempts to find him and doesn’t cooperate with the Lithuanian counterparts. Besides, the Foreign Ministry of Lithuania hopes that the adoption of this declaration would help carry out investigation of the events of January 13, 1991 in Vilnius.
The fourth declaration to the talks mandate concerns paying the damages to those subjected to deportation from the Baltic states during the “Soviet occupation.”
Lithuania’s EU partners refuse to include these declarations into the negotiations mandate, arguing that the EU-Russia talks can fail to get ever accomplished if one waits for all the requirements of Lithuania to be met.
A month and a half
Yesterday’s situation is an exact replica of the one that happened two years ago. November 2006, on the threshold of the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki, Poland vetoed the negotiations. The key demand of Poland was lifting Russia’s embargo on the import of Polish beef, with the energy issue brought up as well. The then Prime Minister of Poland, Yaroslav Kaczyński, stated that Europe was to work out a common energy strategy and only after it enter in negotiations with Russia. So he actually wanted to impede the building of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. Later Lithuania followed Poland. At first, President Valdus Adamkus said that “the energy blackmail of Lithuania on the part of Russia” in the form of suspending the functioning of the “Druzhba” pipeline was the main reason for his indignation.
The new Polish government of Donald Tusk normalized its relations with Moscow, and it lifted its embargo on the import of Polish beef. Last week Radosław Sikorski, Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that from Warsaw’s point of view, “it’s high time for the EU-Russia negotiations to start.”
The EU hopes that it will be able to persuade Lithuania to lift its veto, just like it once managed to do in Poland’s case, Christina Galyak told Kommersant. Nonetheless one should bear in mind that the lifting of the Polish veto was the result of improvement in the relations between Moscow and Warsaw, rather than achievement of the European diplomacy. So one can presume that Moscow will have to similarly improve its relations with Vilnius.
For all that, according to Christina Galyak, the EU won’t abandon the hope to achieve inner consensus within the month and a half left before the Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiysk. It will be the first one where Russia’s president-elect, Dmitry Medvedev will take part. That is why, according to the European officials, this summit will be the right time to launch negotiations. “We’ll have to apply much effort and imagination to draft a document that will satisfy all the EU member-states. But still we hope to do it in time. The European Union is committed to the idea of starting talks about a new agreement with Russia, and we’ll seek their launch.”
There is one difference from the similar situation of 2006 however: At that time the Russian government paid much attention to the signing of a new agreement with the EU. Moscow regarded Brussels its major partner, and expected the successful talks about the PCA to be the sign of improvement in the bilateral relations. But the Kremlin has lost the desire to demonstrate its excellent relations with the EU. Moreover, the success of the Khanty-Mansiysk summit may have a negative impact: in case the EU-Russia talks are launched, it will mean that Dmitry Medvedev managed to achieve something that Vladimir Putin had failed to do.
At that, according to the sources of Kommersant with the European Commission, there is no deadline for the negotiations to start. December 2007 the previous EU-Russia agreement expired and was prolonged for a year. If new negotiations fail to start this summer, Russia and the EU will be able to apply the principles of the old agreement of 1994. But in this case the rapprochement of Russia and Europe, not to mention the cancellation of the visa regime, will be out of question for years to come.
PHOTO Because of Lithuania’s stance, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with his colleagues didn’t manage to persuade the EU to start talks about a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Russia. PHOTO
Mikhail Zygar
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 30, 2008
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