EU foreign ministers were yet again unable to approve a long-awaited negotiating mandate for a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Russia at their bilateral meeting yesterday (29 April).
While previous delays had been caused by Poland, this time Lithuania was at the centre of the deadlock. Indeed, Vilnius is insisting on first obtaining assurances from Russia over issues including energy supply and involvement in regional conflicts in Georgia and Moldova.
The small country insists there is "no rush" to agree on a mandate. "It is not a question of time, but a question of the quality of the mandate, the quality of our partnership (with Russia)," Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas told Reuters after the meeting with his EU counterparts in Luxembourg.
But Slovenia's Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel strongly disagreed, saying "we do not have a lot of time […] we should come to an agreement in a matter of weeks".
The Slovenian Presidency wants the partnership talks to be launched at the EU-Russia Summit in Siberia in June, just before the country passes on the presidency to France. Most EU nations share this view, for the sake of allowing incoming Russian President Dimitrij Medvedev a fresh start when chairing a bilateral summit for the first time.
Rupel heavily criticised Vilnius for vetoing the negotiations, saying it was putting the bloc into an 'unbearable' situation by preventing all other 26 member states from moving on.
The minister further urged the Lithuanian government to listen to the arguments made by the majority of the member states, expressing confidence that "we will be ready in a couple of weeks".
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia is ready to open talks and hoped that Europe would soon be in the same position.
New rounds of talks is scheduled for next week in Brussels and Lithuania, but a formal decision might not be taken before the next foreign ministers' meeting on 26 May.
Discussions over a new accord have been deadlocked for 18 months now, delaying a much-needed update of EU-Russia ties, currently governed by an outdated accord concluded in 1997 to cover a period of ten years.
