MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov)
The European Union (EU) and Russia will not be able to promote their cooperation if they are afraid of growing mutual dependence.
Russian President Vladimir Putin voiced these apprehensions in an article published by the Financial Times, and in the Russian press on the eve of the Russia-EU summit, which opens in Helsinki on November 24.
Putin believes that those who are concerned over some dangerous dependence on Russia, see its relations with the EU in a simplistic palette of black and white, and would like to squeeze them into the archaic pattern of confrontation. In his opinion, such stereotypes, which still persist in political mentality and practice, threaten Europe with new lines of division.
Putin did not mentioned what countries have these obsolete confrontational attitudes, but there are reasons to believe that he was hinting primarily at Poland. Recently, it has blocked the Russian-European talks on the drafting of a new framework partnership agreement, which were supposed to become the main item on the agenda of the upcoming summit in Helsinki. Displaying its ostentatious discontent with Russia's refusal to ratify the Energy Charter, Warsaw is trying to use the EU in its own unilateral interests - to make Russia lift its embargo on the imports of meat and other agricultural produce from Poland.
By linking the Charter's ratification with the meat embargo, Poland has only confirmed the impression of EU veterans that it is a difficult and self-centered partner. All EU members, including Warsaw, have long known Russia's position on both issues.
Putin's envoy to the EU Sergei Yastrzhembsky confirmed on Thursday that Russia would not ratify the current version of the Energy Charter either today or tomorrow. Russia objects not so much to the document as such, as to its transit protocol, which gives the EU members access to the Russian transport infrastructure, including Gazprom's pipe. Russia is also not prepared to accept the protocol's article which equals the foreign and its domestic tariffs on the transportation of energy resources. Indicatively, EU members are showing more and more understanding of Russia's objections. Norway, Europe's biggest oil supplier, has not joined the Charter, either.
As for Russia's decision to impose embargo on meat supplies from Poland, it made it after revealing massive falsification of customs certificates last November. Moreover, poor quality meat was not even of Polish origin, and Warsaw knows only too well how to streamline the transit of produce from its neighbors.
Incidentally, this sad story may have a continuation. Russia has just threatened to ban the imports of all agricultural produce from the EU starting on January 1. The Russian authorities have apprehensions about livestock diseases in Romania and Bulgaria, which will become fully-fledged EU members in the beginning of 2007.
To sum up, the problems used by Poland as an excuse to veto the Russia-EU dialogue are largely rooted in the EU. The latter should work with Moscow on the new version of the Energy Charter, and raise the quality of its livestock produce. The EU should make sure that Romania and Bulgaria are not spreading swine fever to the rest of Europe. There is no point in impeding the talks, which could resolve the said problems as well. Hopefully, Poland has not vetoed the talks out of purely egoistic considerations, such as revenge for the construction of the Nord Stream.
Despite these complications, Russia is not going to dramatize the situation. The existing partnership agreement with the EU will be in operation for another year, and the sides may extend it for any period they want. Russia is not under time pressure, and can take its time working on the new text. "The ball is in the EU's court - it is a strictly EU problem, and Russia is not going to intervene," commented Sergei Yastrzhembsky on Poland's demarche.
Vladimir Putin is very optimistic about Russia's future relations with united Europe. Noting that Russia is not going to join the EU, the President has expressed his conviction that Russia is a member of the European family. A country that subscribes to European values, Russia is ready to share much more with its European partners, for instance, its rich experience of coexistence with different religions and ethnic groups.
Putin has warned that the future talks should not become an exchange of mutual grievances, or get bogged down in technicalities - quotas, tariffs, and anti-dumping. Attempts to turn the EU into a battleground for confrontation with Russia are futile. The Russian President is convinced that today, the EU and Russia should concentrate their efforts on building their common future, and become partners and allies.
