SUMMIT FOR THE SAKE OF TRADITION

Kommersant
Mikhail Zygar
October 26, 2007

EU and Russian leaders are meeting in Portugals
Mafra today for a bilateral summit. The meeting
is likely to make a step backward in EU-Russia
relations. Before the last year's summit the
parties hoped to launch talks on a new
partnership and cooperation agreement. This time,
the EU can no longer turn a blind eye to a bitter
conflict between Russia and Poland and Baltic
states, and no one even dreams about the
agreement anymore. European diplomats told
Kommersant that this summit may as well have been
cancelled if it wasnt for a long-standing
tradition of EU-Russia meetings every six months.

Not a Partner but a Rival

Russia-EU summits are traditionally held in fall
in a country which presides in the EU and in
spring in Russia. This time Russian President
Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov,
Economic Development and Trade Minister Elvira
Nabiullina and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko
will travel to Mafra in Portugal, the EUs remotest country from Russia.

The previous summit was held in Helsinki,
Finland, an EU country which is almost the
closest to Russia. Indeed, Russia and the EU were
much closer then. The parties hoped to announce
the start of talks on a new partnership deal. The
Kremlin laid great hopes on the document and ever
suggested calling it a strategic partnership
treaty. Russia wanted it to include a prospect of
creating common economic space and a free trade
zone later. The current framework agreement
between Russia and Europe expires this year. The
parties were therefore in a hurry to launch talks
to replace the old document. It all fell through
as Poland vetoed the start of talks demanding
that Moscow ratify the EU Energy Charter and lift
the ban on Polish meat exports.

The EU and Russia has failed to get Poland
withdraw the veto. What is more, differences
between Russia and other European countries have
multiplied in the past year. The new treaty
between Russia and Europe has simply slipped off
the agenda. Moscow and Brussels will just prolong
the old 1994 agreement, and there could be no
talk about advancement in relations between Russia and the European Union.

The Financial Times obtained several EU internal
papers prepared for EU governments ahead of the
summit. One of them which was drafted back in
July says that Russia is a strategic partner in
many areas of common interest, notably in the
economic field, but in others such as
involvement sin the post-Soviet space Russia is
likely to remain a competitor or even opponent.
The latest EU paper does not describe Russia as
an opponent but notes that Russia is likely to
be marked by an assertive foreign policy and tougher internal policies.

This is probably the weirdest Russia-EU summit
in the recent time, a high-ranking EU official
told Kommersant. Moscow and Brussels share a lot
of argument and few common points, so its even
not clear how they could discuss cooperation.
Itd logical to make a break, skip this summit
and when problems get solved next year and
elections are over in Russia we could start
speaking about concrete matters. But nothing can
be done: the tradition binds us to hold summits twice a year.

Russian authorities are obviously disappointed
about the situation. Relations with the EU are
crucial for President Putin. He did his best last
year to launch talks on the partnership deal, and
he will surely recall his futile efforts and
blame the EU for reluctance to start talks.
Russian officials say off the record that a new
deal is necessary as road maps on four common
spaces are not legally binding and are
restrictive. However, the four spaces are still on the summits agenda.

Not Druzhba but Nord Stream

However, a real rapprochement in relations and
talks on the partnership deal are hampered not
only by Polands hostility. The past year was
marked with Russias chilled relations with
several Eastern European nations which became a
large-scale conflict that the EU cannot fail to
notice. All old wounds broke open after the
springs information war between Russia and
Estonia. Officials in Mafra are not going to
discuss the transfer of the Bronze Soldier in
Tallinn or a cyber-attack on Estonian
governmental servers, but there are plenty of problems to talk about,
anyway.

President Putin wont lose a chance to blackwash
Estonia and Latvia for infringing on the rights
of Russian speakers in their countries. The
Russian leader has recently accused the two
countries authorities of fostering neo-Nazism,
which Europe saw as a sign that the spring row is
not over yet. Meanwhile, the Council of the
European Union has recently decided to hold a
conference within the next six months to consider
crimes by totalitarian regimes during the Second
World War and afterwards. Poland, Latvia, Estonia
and Lithuania lobbied the conference which is
aimed to condemn not only Fascism but also
Communism, which Russian authorities may perceive as a challenge
against them.

Baltic nations and Poland are not sending their
representatives to the summit in Mafra. The
Russian delegation is to hold talks with
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, EU
President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU High
Representative for the Common Foreign and
Security Policy Javier Solana. Last week, all 27
EU leaders met in Lisbon, and they surely
expressed their dissatisfaction over the Kremlins policies.

Kommersants diplomatic sources report that EU
leadership was instructed to ask Vladimir Putin
why Russia suspended oil shipments to the
Mazeikiu oil refinery and the Ventspilsport.
Russian officials attribute the decision to
near-disastrous state of some parts of the
Druzhba pipeline. But Latvia and Lithuania are
sure that the matter is strongly politically
changed. Another issue concerns a
Russian-Estonian treaty on state border and
delimitation of sea spaces in the Gulf of Finland
and Narva as Moscow has withdrawn its signature from the document.

Another issue is a plan to build the Nord Stream
gas pipeline at the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
Estonia in September officially declined to
provide a part of the seabed for pipe laying.
Poland is also active in fighting the pipeline
plan. Some six months ago, it declared a
territorial claim against Denmark over a part of
the Baltic Sea south off Bornholm. Warsaw wants
it to be declared Polands exclusive economic
zone while it is now Denmarks exclusive economic
zone. This is the place where Nord Streans pipe is to run.

The EU clearly has got no tools to help Russia,
Poland and Baltic countries to settle their
numerous disputes. But their great number
guarantees that any sort of solid decision will be made at the summit.

Not Human Rights but Energy

Russia also has got certain problems with the
European Union on the whole. Moscow was angry at
a draft released on September 19 which maps out
suggestions to liberalize EU electricity and gas
markets. The draft does not allow companies from
other countries to gain control in Europes
transport network unless it is stipulated by an
agreement between the EU and a third countries.
This could be upset Gazproms plans to gain
access to the energy networks. Under the draft,
before entering the European market Gazprom will
have to split into a producing and transport
companies. However, talks between EU Energy
Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Russian Energy
Minister Viktor Khristenko made some progress.
The parties hope that Mr. Piebalgs and Khristenko
will sign in Mafra some kind of agreement with
mutual concessions, which will be a real
breakthrough as Russia and the EU have nothing else to agree on.

The summits agenda also features Kosovo, Georgia
and Moldova, but there are no chances for the
parties to find common ground on them. What is
more, European diplomats told Kommersant the EU
is ready to raise two more issues in Mafra. One
of them is the Russian Dumas refusal to ratify
Protocol 6 and 14 to the European Convention on
Human Rights which abolishes death penalty and
sanctions the reform of the European Court of
Human Rights which is currently blocked by
Russia. The second matter concerns the Litvinenko
case which was long forgotten in Moscow. Portugal
as the presiding nation in the EU has already
issued a statement to express disappointment over
Russias refusal to hand over chief suspect
Andrey Lugovoy to Britain and underlined the EUs
striving to solve the matter has common interest for all EU members.