Ministers to meet commissars

By Vestnik Kavkaza

On 21-22 March the regular "Russian government - European Commission" meeting will take place in Moscow. It will include bilateral meetings of Russian ministers with their counterparts, the Euro Commissioners. “We focus on a very substantive discussion on the issues facing Russia and the European Union: the challenges of today's global conjuncture, issues related to the impact of the global financial and economic crisis, as well as issues which the sides have with each other,” the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Union, Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov says.  “Multi-faceted partnership as that between Russia and the EU (we generally are, on our continent, the two leading economic powers) is not unproblematic. Naturally, we are, of course, partners, strategic partners, but somewhere, in some matters, we also compete with each other. Naturally, these issues arise. But the important thing is that none of the problems between Russia and the EU are of insurmountable character. And the mechanism of interaction built in recent years, comprising a number of sectoral dialogues, high-level meetings, etc., allows whatever issues may arise between the parties to be resolved quickly and in the negotiating process.”

Speaking about liberalization of the visa regime, Chizhov said: “We are tied in two parallel processes. The first is the realization of joint steps on a transition to a visa-free regime. The Parties exchange expert missions, and then, when joint efforts are made, I hope that it is a question of months, not years, then there will be, as they say, the moment of truth - the political decision to move into negotiations on the text of an agreement on the abolition of visas. As to the existence of political will on the Russian side, I am confident of it, but on the side of the EU, I hope that this moment of truth will also be passed without difficulty. The second, parallel process is further simplification of the visa regime. In 2006 we signed an agreement on visa simplification. The sides agreed on further visa facilitation. This includes the expansion of the categories of applicants for visas that use simplified procedures, an extension of the practice of issuing multiple-entry visas, and even a number of other innovations. Indeed, the agreement was almost ready, except for one article, which dealt with distribution visa regime for short trips to the holders of service passports.

This is not about the fact that Russian negotiators care about officials, forgetting about ordinary people. And similarly incorrect is the statement of our colleagues from the European Union that Russia put forward this demand at the last minute.  No. From the very beginning of the negotiations the Russian side mentioned this subject. Then we were told: “But we have no such practice, we do not want to create a precedent. We even have member states - Austria was cited - in which there is no such category of passports." We said - "OK, a 'no' is a 'no'." Then we learned that there was an initialed and now signed agreement on visa facilitation with Ukraine, and later Moldova, with the point on the service passport included. To our question: "How is it possible?" we get the answer, "No, this is not a precedent." Ukraine is not a precedent, but Russia would have been a precedent. We, of course, got offended on behalf of Ukraine. How is this possible? Such an important country - and not a precedent. So this issue has become of fundamental importance in this context. For a long time the European Union could not take a positive decision, citing the absence of a qualified majority. Then, there was a statement by the German Foreign Ministry that they had revised their position in Berlin, and so it happened that after Germany a number of other countries also reconsidered their positions. I am far from making triumphant and euphoric assessments, it is not yet a final decision, but the  negotiations are unlocked.”