By Vestnik Kavkaza
Tomorrow the traditional anniversary summit Russia – the European Union will take place in Brussels. Such summits take place twice a year – in Russia and Europe.
According to Vladimir Chizhov, the Permanent Envoy of Russia in the European Union, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador, “Russia and the EU are two of the most active poles of the modern multipolar world. Everybody has problems, but at the same time we are two foundations of what is called "European civilization."”
The agenda includes three main components.
Firstly, it is discussion of global issues, including global cooperation between Russia and the EU. Internal development of Russia and the European Union, including coordination of measures on overcoming financial crisis, is included in it too.
Secondly, it is the bilateral relations.
The third block of issues involves current international affairs. The situation in the Middle East and North Africa will be touched on. The developments in Syria and over it, the Iranian nuclear program, and other problems will be discussed.
“The Russian delegation headed by President Vladimir Putin goes to Brussels oriented to certain decisions on developing our strategic partnership with the EU,” Chizhov said, mentioning the most important issues.
Visas
Promotion of the visa-free regime is a sharp question. I can say that the process is going on. We have already agreed on certain steps - a document which should be implemented in a due time - and they are being realized. At the moment we are at the stage of exchanging visits at the expert level. Two delegations of the EU representatives have already visited our country. These days the first Russian delegation is visiting the countries of the EU for learning about the real situation in all spheres of mutual steps. They include the border control, migration issues, the problem of document security, i.e. security of a foreign passport and the documents which are needed for getting a foreign passport. As the result of such visits each side has its own questions, and communication continues. I can say that the whole volume of letter communication on these issues between our sides surpasses 1,000 sheets. I don't mean it is excessive bureaucracy, even though we receive certain complaints, nevertheless, the process is going on.
Syria
Russia and the European Union have similar positions on general aspects of the Syrian settlement. Both we and the EU want ceasing fire, violence, murders of peaceful citizens, which are taking place permanently. We want such a settlement which would allow preservation of Syria as a united state, peaceful, living in peace with neighbors and providing reasonable and responsible policy. As for the role of the Syrian opposition, at the last council of the EU on international affairs the question on recognition or non-recognition of the Syrian opposition group which has recently appeared as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people was discussed. It seems the EU has no one common position on this problem.
The WTO
When the negotiations on Russia’s accession to the WTO were nearing an end, it was senseless to discuss the trade-economic sphere of our treaty with the EU before settlement of all issues on the WTO. The negotiations on the WTO finished last December. All procedures were formalized by August 2012, but we had held 12 rounds before this and stopped at this stage for two reasons. The first reason was that the stumbling block was the trade-investment sphere. The EU doesn’t hide that it would like to include in our new treaty an article which can be characterized as the WTO+. However, the Russian economy is only beginning to adapt to WTO membership. Yes, the negotiations lasted 18 years, but implementation of these agreements is a painful compromise for Russia, it is connected with painful concessions and achievements gained by our European colleagues. The Russian economy is digesting WTO membership.
EurAsEC
The process of Eurasian economic integration is gaining strength. Of course, as far as establishing supranational structures of our initial Customs Union, then the Eurasian Economic Space, and in 2015 the Eurasian Economic Union (which includes three countries: Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, but more states in prospect) will take place, the process of means of transferring a series of national functions to the supranational structure. The same process took place in the European Union several decades ago – establishment of the European Commission, transferring functions to it, and so on. However, if in the EU this process has come to a standstill at the moment and there are views, especially in London, to give back certain functions to the national level, we are only beginning our road. The process is at the beginning, even though it is quite intensive. Thus, we have the question on a balance between the national component and the component of Eurasian economic integration in the future treaty.
Energy
All our branch dialogues, we have more than a dozen of them, will be reflected and the goals, of course, without excessive details, as the treaty will be a framework one. It will establish a framework for further separate agreements on each segment of the economy.
“Of course, we could probably achieve more. We could achieve more progress on the way to a visa-free regime, but as the classical writers said, diplomacy is the art of possibilities. As for the economy, I can say that the growth of trade turnover and investments was impressive. It was about 30%. For sure, we have to remember that it was a post-crisis recovery. Nevertheless, in rubles our trade turnover with the EU surpasses 12 trillion.
What will it be next year? We have already planned a series of arrangements. Along with summits, in late March we will hold the next meeting between the government and the European Commission in Moscow. We have developed some treaties which will be signed next year, we hope. Of course some problems won’t be settled at once, but we will work in this direction,” Chizhov concluded.
