EU-Russia Relations after 2007: The Russian debate

The absence of strategic objectives is the main issue affecting EU-Russia relations, argues Nadejda Arbatova in a paper for the Institut Français des Relations Internationales (IFRI). Russia has not yet defined its position, neither in the EU strategy on enlargement nor in  NATO, she says.

The Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) that establishes an institutional framework for bilateral contact between the EU and Russia will end in November 2007, and will be automatically extended unless either side withdraws. Both the EU and Russia acknowledge that the agreement is obsolete – the democratic future of Russia and EU stability will depend partly on the new legal basis that will oversee the relationship, the author notes. 

While Brussels has criticised Putin’s external and internal policies for not respecting the values and principles of the EU-Russia partnership, Russia is concerned about the EU’s institutional crisis and the difficulties facing new member states over integrating the European market. EU-Russia relations are characterised by a mutual distrust, the paper suggests. Moreover, both the EU and Russia are currently more involved in their own mutation process than in the future of their relationship. 

The paper examines the proposition of the committee ‘Russia in the United Europe’, a Russian non-governmental organisation that considers three possible scenarios: 

• The extension of the PCA until either side decides to replace it with a new agreement;
• the introduction of amendments that would take into account the current advanced co-operation, ie current bilateral relations that are not included in the PCA’s framework, and the perspectives of UE-Russia relations for the next ten to 15 years until the establishment of an association agreement, and;
• the drawing-up of a new agreement to replace the PCA.

The first scenario supposes that both the EU and Russia are not ready to build new relationships, while the third would be the best solution but would be difficult to implement, considering the crisis in relations between Russia and the new member states. Moreover, the second scenario is generally considered as too ambitious, the author argues. 

Moscow acknowledges the necessity of a new agreement that would go beyond the PCA – a co-operation partnership represents more than an economic agreement that would benefit both the EU and Russia, the paper concludes.