Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-24-Speech-3-048"
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Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, the 20
EU-Russia Summit will take place on Friday of this week in the Portuguese town of Mafra. This represents, in our opinion, an excellent opportunity for the leaders of both Russia and the European Union to take stock of our relations.
Despite the current deadlock in the negotiations, the situation should not be overdramatized. We actually agreed with Russia in 2006 that the PCA would remain in force, thus avoiding any legal vacuum in our relations with Russia.
Finally, we will certainly be raising the most important issues currently on the international agenda, in particular Kosovo and Iraq. We will also stress how vital positive cooperation with Russia is in our common neighbourhood, so that we can tackle common issues of interest and concern, particularly the ‘frozen’ disputes.
We believe that relations between the European Union and Russia are generally good and certainly much better than the international press would sometimes have us believe. Russia is a key partner for the EU and we take our relationship very seriously. The summit will tackle the situation in the EU and in Russia. We will report on developments in the European Union, in particular on progress made in drafting the new Reform Treaty which has just been adopted in Lisbon and on the energy liberalisation package proposed by the Commission and adopted on 9 September.
As for the common spaces, we will review the progress made in implementing the road maps. This process continues to be wholly positive, although some areas need to be driven forward. In certain important sectors, the Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) has helped to achieve this objective. The PPC on Culture, which will be held the day before the summit, will help to intensify our cultural cooperation.
In terms of priorities for the summit, we intend to reach agreement on the launch of the early warning system in the energy sector, on which agreement in principle was reached at the last summit held in Samara. Given the interdependence of the European Union and Russia in terms of energy, confidence must be increased and mutual cooperation reinforced. We will therefore highlight the objectives and principles that the EU must respect in relation to our energy partnership, in particular reciprocity, transparency, openness and creation of an effective legal and regulatory framework. In our opinion, the principles of the Energy Charter Treaty and the text on worldwide energy security adopted by the G8 in Saint Petersburg must be included in the new EU-Russia Agreement which will be legally binding and will replace the current Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA).
In the area of investment, we welcome the formal dialogue planned in the road map for the common economic space. It is vitally important that transparent, non-discriminatory and predictable conditions are created for EU undertakings investing in Russia, bearing in mind the law on strategic investments which is being considered by the Duma. We will also urge Russia to avoid the selective use of flanking policies, such as the environment or taxation, to hinder existing investments or create hidden obstacles for new investment. We believe that Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) is a priority which is why we also intend to broach this issue at the summit. The Commission may have something more to say on this.
I must point out that the summit will also be used to apply pressure, in order to ensure progress, if a satisfactory solution has not been found to the main outstanding issues, such as wood export duties or discriminatory rail tariffs.
We are aware that this summit comes at a time when both the presidential and Duma elections in Russia are imminent. In the election process, freedom of expression, including freedom of the press and freedom of assembly, will be vitally important and a real test of the democratic legitimacy of Russia. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) must be given free access to observe the Duma elections. As a member of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe, Russia has a particular responsibility to protect our common values. It is regrettable that certain issues have overshadowed relations between the European Union and Russia, given that our interdependence is increasing, not reducing.
Russia and the EU need to work together to overcome their differences as there is really no alternative to our cooperation. Unfortunately, the start of negotiations on a new agreement between the EU and Russia is still deadlocked. Russia’s bans on imports of Polish meat and vegetables continue to form a major obstacle to the start of negotiations. The Commission has indicated its readiness to continue contacts in order to find a mutually acceptable solution. Unfortunately, the situation has been further complicated by the decision taken by the Russian veterinary authorities at the end of last month to ban the import of meat produced by 36 EU undertakings.
The interruption to oil supplies destined for Lithuania through the Druzhba pipeline also represents a sticking point preventing negotiations on a new agreement between the EU and Russia from getting underway. More than a year has passed without Russia having given any official information on the leak from the pipeline or on the prospects of resuming supplies. It is therefore vital to find a satisfactory solution that will create the necessary confidence to continue developing the partnership between the EU and Russia in the area of energy."@en1
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