Financial crisis threatens EU-Russia cooperation

Russia last year failed to sign the financial part of the Baltic Sea CBC, which resulted in a setback in East-West project cooperation in the Baltic Sea region. Now, analysts, EU officials and project organizations fear that Russia eventually might fail to sign also the remaining six programmes.

Should Russia not sign the programme financial agreements, all with deadline of 31 December 2009, practical cooperation between the country and western partners could face a serious setback.

The ENPI CBC programmes are among the EU’s main cooperation tools with neighboring countries in Eastern Europe and North Africa. Russia is included in seven of the programmes, among them the Baltic Sea CBC and the Kolarctic programme. Both of the two programmes include more than 20 million EUR in cross-border project money.

Originally, Russia has committed itself to contribute with 111 million EUR to the seven programmes over the period 2007-2013.

In a seminar organized by the North Norway European Office in Brussels last week, representative of the EU Commision DG AIDCO, Cristina Mosneaga, confirmed that there is growing concern within the EU about Russia’s financing of the programmes.

The future of the programmes might have become even bleaker as the financial crisis strains Russian economy and reduces the country’s ability to engage in international projects. Less project cooperation with foreign partners would subsequently negatively affect cross-border relations. Consequences of the non-signing of the Baltic Sea CBC are already felt. As BarentsObserver previously reported, among the projects deadlocked because of lacking financing is the Barents 2010 project, an intitiative elaborated by the Barents Regional Council.

Still, there are still hopes for the cooperation programmes. Ms Mosneaga said to BarentsObserver that negotiations with Russia are ongoing and that the country most probably eventually will sign the financial agreements.