MOSCOW, May 20 (RIA Novosti) - Cooperation between Russia and the EU on tackling the global economic crisis will be a key issue on the agenda of the Russia-EU summit starting on Thursday, a Russian presidential aide said.
"It is the main issue of the Russia-EU summit," Sergei Prikhodko said on Wednesday, adding that all other issues, including energy security in Europe, relations between Russia and the EU, situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be discussed in light of this issue.
Since the start of the economic crisis in Russia last October, industrial output has fallen for six consecutive months, compared with the same periods of last year.
Russia's Economics Ministry earlier said domestic industrial output could decline by as much as 9% in 2009.
The country's GDP fell 9.5% in the first quarter, year-on-year, and 23.2% compared with the fourth quarter of 2008, while Russian consumer prices increased 6.6% from January 1 to May 18, according to the Federal Statistics Service.
The European Commission's latest forecasts predict the European Union and the euro area economies will contract by 4 percent this year and by 0.1 percent next year.
The Russian delegation at the two-day summit in the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk will be led by President Dmitry Medvedev and include several Cabinet ministers.
The EU will be represented by Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, which holds the EU rotating presidency, along with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
