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European ministers hope EU-Russia summit will defuse tensions
By Paul Harrington
AFP
BRUSSELS
Petroleumworld.com 05 14 07European foreign ministers will meet Monday to prepare for an EU-Russia summit they hope will ease tensions heightened in recent months by issues as diverse as Kosovo independence and Polish meat.
Another log was added to the diplomatic fire on Saturday when Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkmen and Kazakh counterparts agreed a landmark gas pipeline deal in a victory for Moscow over European and US plans for the region.
"It is important that we try to calm things down and get back to a factual level for our discussions," one EU diplomatic source said ahead of the Brussels talks.
"We know that the Russians are getting hot and bothered as well."
So much so that last month EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson warned that mistrust and a lack of respect in the relations between the European Union and Russia are at their worst levels since the Cold War.
"Neither thinks they enjoy the respect and goodwill from the other they are entitled to expect," he argued, in comments which his EU colleagues have since been at pains to play down.
Many observers agree that there has been heightened tension since eight former Soviet-bloc states joined the European Union in 2004.
It was hoped that the EU-Russia summit in Samara on May 18-19 would mark the launch of talks on a new wide-ranging partnership agreement, which the Europeans see as key to securing reliable oil and supplies from their giant neighbour. Europe has voiced growing concern about the power that Moscow wields because of its massive oil and gas reserves, as well as its strong control over transport of energy supplies from Central Asia.
However Warsaw, upset at the meat export ban they say is politically motivated, has for months vetoed the start of the EU-Russia talks and shows little sign of relenting.
Poland, along with the Czech Republic, is also in Moscow's bad books over US plans to build part of a missile defence shield there.
The foreign ministers meeting in Brussels will also hail Serbia's creation on Friday of a pro-European government.
The 27 EU nations hope the Serbs' move will help push forward plans for supervised independence in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo, a measure which Russia has threatened to block at the UN Security Council.
Russia on Saturday dismissed as "unacceptable" a draft UN Security Council resolution, introduced by Western powers, endorsing the Kosovo independence plan of UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari.
Meanwhile Moscow has raged at neighboring EU member Estonia since a memorial to Red Army soldiers was relocated out of Tallinn's central square in late April.
EU diplomats admit that, given the raft of policy differences, little in the way of concrete results can be expected from the EU-Russia summit, which will bring together Putin, EU Commission leader Jose Manuel Barroso, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, which currently holds the EU presidency.
"Russia and the EU member states must reduce the tension, a consolidated relation with Russia profits everybody," Solana commented in the German Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag.
In the current climate EU concerns over human rights issues, notably the violent suppression of anti-Kremlin protesters last month, seldom rise above a written or spoken slap on the wrist.
The EU foreign ministers also have a full agenda of other issues to discuss, and will notably meet on Monday with their Arab counterparts, including those from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and the Palestinian territories, to offer their support for the recently revived Arab peace initiative for the Middle East.
AFP 13 0122 GMT 05 07
Copyright© 2007 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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