Russia, EU on threshold of breakthrough deal
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-05-10 08:30

Russia and the European Union appear to be on the threshold of a breakthrough in their often fraught relations on Tuesday after months of painstaking diplomatic wrangling.

The two, which now share a border in several places since the EU's expansion a year ago to include a string of Baltic and East European nations, are poised to sign deals strengthening trade and political ties at a summit in Moscow.

"I think this summit will give a new impulse to our relations," said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder talk during a meeting in Moscow, May 9, 2005. [Reuters]

"Russia is the most important neighbor we have and we respect it enormously and we want constructive relations in all spheres," he told the Ekho Moskvy radio station in an interview.

The two sides were expected to sign a pact encompassing "four spaces" -- the economy; freedom, security and justice; external security; and research, education and science -- in which they promise to quicken the pace of cooperation.

The EU's External Relations Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said a deal was practically sewn up. "We are still negotiating on one specific point. Still I am confident that tomorrow we will have an agreement," she told reporters.

Agreement would come a day after world leaders gathered in Moscow to celebrate the end of World War II in a spectacular show of Red Square pageantry, reminiscent of the Soviet Union's heyday as a world superpower.

The EU is Moscow's largest trading partner with over half of Russia's exports going to the bloc. Russia supplies the EU with around one fifth of its oil and gas needs.

WTO APPEAL

EU leaders are expected to appeal to Putin to seize the opportunity to finalize trade negotiations in the coming months enabling Russia to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) by early in 2006.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson told reporters on the eve of the summit that the talks were "creating a possibility of final entry in early 2006." Russia is the largest trading nation still outside the WTO.

"Russia needs to take advantage of a window between now and the summer to get the accession tied down," he said.

But Mandelson said Putin, who will attend Tuesday's summit, should step in to ensure better coordination between ministerial departments on the Russian side of the talks, so the chance to strike a WTO deal was not squandered.

Russia has been responsive to EU demands on strengthening their ties in the weeks and months leading up to the summit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov conceded in April that the EU had a key role to play in resolving "frozen conflicts" in countries such as Georgia and Moldova, which were formerly part of the Soviet empire.

Sensitivities between Russia and an EU now embracing nations that were once part of the Soviet Union were underscored by an EU statement on Friday that the fall of the Berlin Wall rather than that of Nazi Germany ended dictatorship in Europe.

For three new EU members, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, May 9, 1945 marked the beginning of Soviet occupation rather than a liberation.

Russia for its part has accused the Baltic republics of discriminating against Russian-speaking minorities who were left high and dry after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

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