EU-Russia Mission Impossible?
The list of disputes between the EU and Russian is becoming longer and could eventually make negotiations over a new framework agreement a mission impossible, Arkady Moshes from the Finnish Institute of International Affaris argues.
The number of controversies between the EU and Russia threatens to make the ongoing talks between the parts on a new comprehensive Partnership Agreement a failure, the researcher maintains in an article written for the French think tank, the Robert Schuman Foundation.
The two sides could eventually end up with a meaningless political declaration, Mr. Moshes writes.
Partnership Agreement
In the EU-Russia summit in November last year, the EU leaders announced their readiness to restart talks on a new Partnership Agreement with the Russians. Then, negotiations had been stalled for several months following the Russian-Georgian war in August. The former Partnership Agreement between EU and Russia expired 31 December 2007.
Lower Russian focus on EU
The researcher argues that there is an accelerating process of mutual alienation between Russia and Europe, both with regard bureaucratic rhetoric and economic interests. Russia is looking at the EU as a weak and incapable foreign policy player, Arkady Moshes maintains. That can be illustrated by Russia’s prioritizing of bilateral ties with several EU member states and circumvention of relations with Brussels.
The researcher also believes that the Russian Foreign Policy Concept, adopted last fall shows a lower focus on the EU. That document reads that the EU is “one of the main trade-economic and foreign policy partners”. Meanwhile, the same policy concept of year 2000 had another more committing wording. There, Russia-EU relations were considered to be “of key importance”.
EU self-confidence needed
What the EU now needs to do is to make it clear to Russia that “it deserves respect and needs to be taken seriously”. EU has to restore self-confidence and cohesion of its policy, Mr. Moshes underlines.
As BarentsObserver has reported, both parts admit that negotiations will be very complicated. Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aleksandr Grushko believes it will take at least 2-3 years to complete the talks.
A top-level meeting between the sides took place at February 13. The next EU-Russia top meeting is due in Prague in May.
