The general tenor of the 21st EU-Russia Summit in Khanty Mansiisk, Siberia, has – according to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia and current President of the European Council – been very congenial, it is also the first such meeting since 2003 to conclude with the adoption of a Joint Statement. “Ten years on from the very first EU-Russia Summit, we have adopted a Joint Statement marking the launch of negotiations for the new agreement between the European Union and the Russian Federation. We have thus confirmed the positive expectations of a new start, which have recently characterised our partnership,” commented Prime Minister Janez Janša at a press conference after the Summit.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
The Summit is also a special one on account of the fact that it was chaired for the first time, for the Russian side, by the new President of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Medvedev, and, for the EU, by Slovenia, the first of the new Member States since the latest enlargement to hold the EU Council Presidency and also the first Slavic country to take the helm of the EU Council. Prime Minister Janez Janša noted his satisfaction at the confirmation of the high expectations for the new agreement. “Although a range of views will need to be harmonised through negotiation, even at the outset we are all agreed on the central objective, namely that for EU-Russian relations we need an improved and more ambitious basis, which must be adapted to the broad-based and diverse nature of the cooperation we have achieved in the last decade. The Agreement as such must enable our strategic partnership to be further strengthened,” was the optimistic statement of the Slovenian Premier.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
Mr Janša also drew attention to the fact that the European Union’s success in addressing the challenges of the global era would to a large extent depend specifically on the development of relations with Russia, the EU’s biggest neighbour. A similar interest was also expressed by the Russian side. According to the Russian President, relations with the European Union are a very important component of Russia’s strategy for the twenty-first century.
The European Union continues to be Russia’s largest trading partner. Since 2000, the volume of trade has almost tripled, totalling €233 billion in 2007. The same period saw the share of trade with Russia as a proportion of the EU’s total foreign trade almost double. Among the EU’s trading partners, Russia is ranked third, immediately after the United States and China. The Summit participants also agreed that the main challenges faced by the economies of the EU and Russia were the result of global developments and therefore, in addition to short-term measures, called for partnership and strategic cooperation.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
“Close cooperation also continues to be pivotal in the area of energy. The negotiations on the new agreement must be pursued in tandem with open dialogue on energy, an area in which we need to strengthen cooperation to ensure greater predictability for the security of demand and supply. This balance is very important. It is, consequently, equally important that the Early Warning Mechanism be applied in practice at the earliest possible opportunity,” emphasised the current European Council President, Janez Janša.
The Slovenian Prime Minister also regarded Russia as a strategic partner of the EU in combating climate change. Both share a responsibility in global security challenges, in which they both pin great hopes on efficient cooperation within multilateral frameworks.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
“The European Union certainly hopes that constructive cooperation with Russia in ensuring the stable and democratic development of countries in our common neighbourhood and in resolving ‘frozen conflicts’ will continue in future. There was a common understanding that it is very important that all the parties involved in the ‘frozen conflicts’ refrain from the use of force and pursue mutual dialogue,” stressed the Slovenian Premier.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
The EU Heads of State and Government and the Russian President expanded and intensified their dialogue in a wide range of areas. In this respect, however, certain differences of opinion were inevitable. “It is therefore important to have in place mechanisms within which an open debate between partners can take place. One of these mechanisms is that for regular consultations on human rights, the most recent being held in Ljubljana in April. The European Union is interested in pursuing this dialogue further,” said the Slovenian Prime Minister. He added that the European Union devoted a great deal of attention to human rights, and noted that he was pleased to see that the Russian President, Dmitry Medvedev, placed similar emphasis on this issue too.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
On the EU side, in addition to the Slovenian Prime Minister and European Council President Janez Janša and Slovenian Economy Minister Andrej Vizjak, the EU-Russia Summit was attended by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, European Commissioner for External Trade Peter Mandelson, European Commissioner for External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. The Russian delegation, which also included Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, was headed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
At the press conference following the Summit, the European Commission President and the Russian President took the opportunity to commend Slovenia on its six-month Presidency of the European Union. The Commission President commented that Slovenia’s EU Presidency, the first incumbency of a new Member State, had been extremely successful and carried the same weight as the Presidencies of other EU Member States. The Russian President, equally generous in his praise of Slovenia’s Presidency, declared the term of office of the first Slavic country to take the helm of the European Union a successful one.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
After the Summit, the Slovenian Prime Minister held a separate meeting with the Russian Federation President, Dmitry Medvedev, at which they discussed economic cooperation between Slovenia and Russia, especially with respect to trade, advocating that it be further enhanced. The volume of trade in goods and services between Slovenia and Russia is considerably increasing, and accounts for almost €2 billion a year. “There is, furthermore, considerable interest on both sides,” explained the Slovenian Prime Minister. He said that Slovenia regarded the Russian Government’s attempts to increase the dynamism of the economy by incentivising the establishment of small and medium-sized enterprises as a significant new niche in the market.
(Photo: Bor Slana/Bobo)
One of very important areas of cooperation between the two countries is the area of energy. Expert-level negotiations are currently under way on the construction of the section of the South Stream gas pipeline scheduled to be routed through Slovenia. The Prime Minister took the view that, provided that it satisfied certain demands on the Slovenian side, this project would be favourable for Slovenia. Not only would it give Slovenia access to the energy resources it needs, it would also provide business opportunities to be involved in the construction project and to derive benefits from the transit of gas not consumed in Slovenia,” explained the Slovenian Premier.
Press release of the EU-Russia Summit
Joint statement of the EU-Russia Summit on the launch of negotiations for a new EU-Russia agreement
Joint statement of the EU-Russia Summit on cross-border cooperation
