EU-Russia relations: complex, but necessary

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 12th May 2005

"Durable EU-Russia relations cannot be based on real-politik or old- fashioned assumptions that the European Union is nothing more than a free-trade area. No lasting relations with Russia can be built on anything less than full respect for democracy, the rule of law and EU values", said Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe leader Graham WATSON at the occasion of the hearing organised by the ALDE on EU-Russia relations, held in Strasbourg on the 11 May.

The discussion was scheduled the day after the 15th EU-Russia Summit in Moscow. It provided an excellent opportunity for scholars, experts and MEPs to comment on the outcome of the summit. The summit gave way to the signature of four "roadmap" documents, intended to give a new momentum to the relationship, since the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement signed between the EU and Russia in 1995. The documents cover four fields of cooperation: a common economic space; freedom, security and justice; external security and research, education and culture.

"As a Russian, I am concerned by the negative developments in my country. But as a political scientist, I am observing the transition of a soviet legacy to a market economy", said Nadeshda ARBATOVA, Director of the foundation 'Russia in the European Union'. "EU countries are rightly concerned about the war in Chechnya, the presence of oligarchs and the crackdown on the media. But what is the difference between the first and the second war in Chechnya in terms of the excessive use of force and violation of human rights?" she asked. In her view, "the nature of the regime is reversible, which is the optimistic side of the argument". She called for the EU to conclude a "special Association Agreement which could upgrade the level of relations, thus preventing EU-Russia rivalry in the post-Soviet space".

According to Michael EMERSON, a senior research fellow at CEPS, the agreement concluded at the EU-Summit retains a list of 400 bulleted action points that the "normal citizen" would perceive as "Euro-Russki diplomatic-bureacratic borsch". He notes that in the economic chapter of the agreement, there is no specific mention of the term free trade. "However, it is the common space of external security, potentially the most interesting innovation, which is the most disappointing", he said. "Russia is militarily and politically protecting secessionist regimes, whose leaderships are notoriously undemocratic", he insisted. The EP rapporteur on Russia Cecilia MALMSTROM, whose report will be adopted in the plenary on the 26th May, then took the floor. "I am glad that the EU and Russia are discussing cooperation for the future. But at the same time, I regret that important issues, such as human rights, democracy and the situation in Chechnya is taken off the agenda, when President Putin refuses to discuss them. The EU must stand by its values and express its concern that the human rights situation in Russia is getting weaker. The Russian people are not helped by us by keeping silent about these problems", she explained.