Russia's ban proved to be a major stumbling block at Friday's Russia-EU summit in Helsinki, at which Moscow and the European Union had hoped to launch talks on a new cooperation agreement, but were stopped short by Poland's move to veto the talks, in protest against the meat ban.
Speaking at a press conference after the summit in the Finnish capital, Jose Manuel Barroso proposed to conduct three-way talks involving Moscow, the EU and Warsaw on the ban.
Moscow introduced its embargo on imports of Polish meat and poultry products on November 10, citing concerns over violations of veterinary regulations. The country had already banned agricultural imports from Poland last year, on health grounds.
After Warsaw, which sees the embargo as a retaliation for its support of the "orange revolution" in Ukraine in 2004, vetoed the launch of Russia-EU talks on a new cooperation deal, officials from the 25-nation bloc unsuccessfully attempted Friday to persuade Poland to soften its stance.
Barroso said the current dispute could be resolved, and the European Commission is willing to contribute to the negotiating process through proactive participation in three-way talks between the EU, its member Poland, and Russia.
In response, Russian President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow has no claims against the quality of Polish meat, but objects to products of third countries being imported to Russia via Poland.
He also called attempts of Polish authorities to link the ban on meat exports with vetoing Russia-EU cooperation agreement talks 'economic egoism'.
"We should avoid linking a technical issue with the general issues of Russia-EU relations," Putin said. "Such economic egoism is not helping and will not help our efforts."
He urged Poland again to start direct bilateral talks on meat exports.
"As soon as we reach an agreement, the problem will be resolved," Putin said.
