"The economic dialogue with the official Brussels remains frozen, but this does not prevent bilateral contacts with European countries. Cooperation at the intergovernmental level was renewed with two-thirds of European Union's member states," Gruzdev told the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper in an interview.
He noted that dialogue with the Baltic countries, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland was not easy.
"Some progress has been made with Sweden, it is possible that a meeting of the intergovernmental commission may be held within a year. A positive example is Germany, with which it is already planned to hold a meeting of the bilateral strategic working group in Berlin on July 25. The majority of its subdivisions resumed their dialogue, we see great interest from the German business community, we regularly hold meetings with its representatives," the deputy minister said.
Gruzdev also mentioned recent meeting in the Ministry of Economic Development with the ambassadors of the European Union states in Moscow, in which almost all ambassadors took part.
"There was a frank dialogue that showed that, despite Brussels' exclusively politicized position, economic interests are getting better: the European business is already tired of these restrictions and understands that it is losing a lot because of them. We see new projects and the increase in trade turnover in favor of the EU countries, so I think that there will be a gradual movement," he said.
Russia and the European Union have a good reserve in joint investment projects, but it is premature to discuss the development of any measures in case of the possible lifting of mutual sanctions, Gruzdev said.
