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Lithuania Lifts Veto
Lithuania no longer blocks the start of negotiations between the European Commission and Russia on concluding a new partnership and cooperation agreement. Therefore, the talks may start already in June, during the Khanty-Mansiysk summit of Russia and EU, but the parties will hardly ink the document before 2009.
The breakthrough in the EU negotiations with Lithuania occurred Sunday, when Sweden Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt, his Poland’s counterpart Radosław Sikorski and Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel (Slovenia holds the rotating EU presidency now) arrived in Vilnius accompanied by the EC deputy head Herve Jouanjean.
The talks were time-consuming, and when Lithunian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas showed up before the reporters, he announced that Vilnius lifts its veto on the EC-Russia’s negotiations on concluding a new cooperation agreement. The Lithuanian diplomat said he was pleased with agreeing in principal about the EC mandate for negotiations with Russia and thanked Dimitrij Rupel for constructive approach and friendliness when looking for the ways to meet Lithuanian demands.
The energy blackmail was the key accusation that Lithuania brought against Russia. According to Vaitiekunas, the parties have reached consensus on how the mandate should spell out deliveries via the Druzhba oil pipeline, legal cooperation, including the Moscow role in events that happened in Vilnius January 13, 1991, probe into the cases involving the EU residents, who missed in Russia, and settlement of conflicts in Moldova and Georgia.
So, the two-year ordeal that Poland initiated in November of 2006 in the wake of the meat embargo has neared the end. The negotiations may begin already in June, during the Khanty-Mansiysk summit of Russia and EU, but the treaty will be hardly inked earlier than in 2009.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of May 13, 2008
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