EU edges closer to agreement over Russia pact

Internal EU negotiations over a strategic treaty with Russia made headway at the weekend but were finally put on hold over concerns by Lithuania that “frozen conflicts” are threatening Georgia and Moldova’s territorial integrity.

Lithuania was yesterday (13 May) about to lift its objection to starting negotiations on a new EU-Russia Treaty after other EU countries introduced changes to the agreed text, prompting Vilnius to ask for more time for internal consultations.

A breakthrough came at the weekend after a visit to Vilnius by Slovenian Foreign Affairs Minister Dmitrij Rupel on behalf of the EU Presidency. He was accompanied by his Swedish and Polish counterparts Carl Bildt and Radislaw Sikorsky.

“We have reached a good agreement, which respects the needs of Lithuania while also taking into account the interests of the EU as a whole,”  Rupel said in a statement on Sunday (11 May) following talks with high-level Lithuanian representatives.

However, the issue was again discussed after the Vilnius visit at a meeting of EU member states’ diplomats (COREPER) in Brussels on Tuesday (13 May). At the meeting, some of the remaining 23 countries introduced changes to the text agreed in Vilnius, raising further objections from Lithuania. 

A final agreement to start negotiations with Russia is expected to be confirmed at the next meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers, scheduled for 26 May in Brussels. The Slovenian Presidency then hopes to re-launch full talks in time for the EU-Russia Summit in Khanti-Mansiisk, Siberia, on 26-27 June.

EU foreign ministers had already discussed the details of a Commission mandate to open negotiations with Russia at a meeting in Luxembourg on 29 April. But the ministers had been unable to reach agreement on the text due to the Lithuanian veto (EURACTIV 28/04/08
). The Baltic state has drawn attention to three items: 

• Russia’s attitude to the ‘frozen conflicts’ in Abkhazia and Trans-Dniester with emphasis on the territorial integrity of Georgia and Moldova;
• its effective cooperation in the field of justice and law enforcement, and;
• its standpoint on energy. There, Lithuania objects in particular to the closure by Russia of Druzhba-1 pipeline, which used to deliver Russian oil to the only refinery in the country. Moscow clams the reasons for this are technical, not political.

However, all the issues have now been solved, except the wording on frozen conflicts, diplomatic sources told EURACTIV.

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