Russia and the EU were supposed to initiate talks at their summit in the Finnish capital Friday on replacing the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which expires in 2007, with a new one. However, EU-member Poland vetoed the launch of talks over Moscow's ban on its meat products and other food imports.
"The EU has not worked out a shared position on this issue yet," Vladimir Putin told a news conference after the summit in Helsinki.
A senior Polish official signaled earlier that the country is considering withdrawing its veto on the talks. The issue has proved a source of embarrassment for the EU, after the 25-nation bloc's Finnish Presidency failed to persuade Poland to soften its stance and allow talks on a new Russia-EU deal.
A Russian official said Russia and Poland had held talks on the issue, and reiterated their shared readiness to continue dialogue.
The president said, "In any case, the delay will not have a negative impact on the whole range of our relations with the EU. These are based on the agreement on partnership and cooperation, which we can prolong annually, under the document."
In addition to lifting Moscow's embargo on its food imports, Poland has also demanded that Russia ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, which would force Russia to liberalize its oil and gas sector. Russia opposes the idea, saying that some of the document's provisions - such as opening access for European companies to its pipelines - run counter to its interests.
The president said that the Russian and EU governments should meet in February 2007 due to strong progress in cooperation.
"We propose that a new meeting between the Russian government and the European Commission be held as soon as February 2007," Putin said.
Finland's Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said that although Russia and the EU failed to reach an agreement on the launch of new talks, the sides agreed that there would be other opportunities to begin negotiations.
