EU: relations with Russia at "crossroads"

02/09/2008

The EU will postpone further negotiations on a strategic political and economic agreement with Russia until it withdraws all its forces from Georgia, EU leaders said after a summit in Brussels on Monday.

(AFP, AP, Bloomberg, The Guardian, International Herald Tribune, EurActiv - 02/09/08; Reuters, AP, AFP, DPA, BBC, FT, Euobserver, EU - 01/09/08)

"I think we found an excellent compromise (by) not going back to business as usual but still making clear that we want to maintain contact with Russia," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. [Getty Images]

EU leaders decided on Monday (September 1st) to suspend talks on a new co-operation deal with Russia until it withdraws, as earlier promised, all troops from Georgia to the lines they held prior to the outbreak of the two countries' conflict last month.

"Until troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to August 7th, meetings on the negotiation of the Partnership Agreement will be postponed," they said in a statement following an extraordinary summit in Brussels.

Talks on a new political and economic accord between the EU and Russia, to replace the one signed in 1997, began in July. The next round had been scheduled to open on September 15th.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, called the emergency meeting to discuss the crisis in the Caucasus and the 27-nation bloc's ties with Russia.

Russia agreed on August 12th to withdraw all troops from Georgia but is still keeping hundreds of "peacekeepers" inside the country.

"With the crisis in Georgia, relations between the EU and Russia have reached a crossroads," the bloc's leaders said in a joint statement Monday, urging Moscow "not to isolate itself from Europe" and to honour all its commitments. They also noted that the Union will be monitoring the Caucasus and Russia in the run-up to the planned November EU-Russia summit.

Sarkozy, European Commission (EC) President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will visit Moscow and Tbilisi next week for further talks on the Caucasus crisis.

"This crisis means that we have to re-examine our relations with Russia," the French president told reporters after the summit. "The EU would welcome a real partnership with Russia, but you [need] two to tango."

His meeting next week with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev will be "crucial" for EU relations with Russia, he also noted.

In their statement Monday, the EU leaders slammed Russia for its "disproportionate" use of force in Georgia and its unilateral recognition on August 26th of the independence of its southern neighbour's breakaway provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

"That decision is unacceptable, and the European Union calls on other states not to recognise this proclaimed independence and asks the EC to examine the practical consequences to be drawn," they said.

The EU leaders decided to strengthen the OSCE observer mission in South Ossetia by sending around 200 monitors and to immediately dispatch a fact-finding mission. They will dispense reconstruction assistance worth 110m euros and organise an international donors' conference soon.

According to Monday's statement, the bloc will also step up relations with Georgia.

The leaders tasked the EC to consider ways to reduce the bloc's dependence on Russia for a third of its oil and 40% of its natural gas imports.