Russia and the EU are not just geographical neighbours, the author says: they belong to the same European family.
Describing a number of historic events, he shows that the European and Russian populations have long been related. For example, during the French revolution, 300,000 people took refuge in Russia and during the Second World War, Russia found itself on the same side as the democracies of Europe.
According to the author, Moscow and Brussels agree on a number of basic elements concerning the contemporary system of international relations. They are both in favour of a more important role for the UN, considering it to be the main actor for peacekeeping, and they both agree on the notion that unilateral actions are unacceptable. These affinities must be considered as a good basis for further coordination of common positions, the defence of common interests and the implementation of common actions, states Entin.
From the economic point of view, international competition and the emergence of new powers in south-east Asia are pushing the EU and Russia towards economic integration. If they pool their efforts and resources, the EU and Russia will be able to stick to the development model they support and face new challenges together, the paper says.
The Russian war against Chechnya has been fateful for EU-Russia relations. Russia became the target of criticism that never stopped until September 11, when the EU started to position itself as a teacher "unhappy with his pupil's results, but doing nothing to help him", as Entin puts it.
After this turmoil, relations between the EU and Russia took another path and both entities agreed on an agenda for a common economic area, issues of external and internal security and science and education.
The author claims that this first EU-Russia partnership was a failure, and thus concludes by making a number of recommendations for an agreement establishing a new partnership between the EU and Russia:
- It is important to clearly define what is expected from each of the parties, as well as the long-term cooperation scenarios;
- it should include judicial clauses giving concrete rights to citizens and entrepreneurs, independently from political power;
- it should include steps towards more advanced integration; and;
- a common structure, for example, an organisation should be put in place to enable cooperation and prevent potential crises.
