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  • Russia's New Permanent Representative To EU Full Of Ideas

    RUSSIA'S NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE TO EU FULL OF IDEAS

    RIA Novosti, Russia
    Sept 1 2005

    MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov). --
    Veteran diplomat and former deputy Russian foreign finister Vladimir
    Chizhov, 52, Russia's new permanent representative to the European
    Union, has plenty to be getting on with.

    His many priority tasks include negotiating simplified visa regulations
    for Russians traveling to the EU, promoting the energy dialogue, and
    drafting a new, comprehensive agreement for the Russian-EU partnership.

    At his first press conference in his new capacity, Chizhov, who
    attended 13 of the 15 EU-Russia summits, spoke about his plans to
    transform his representative office in Brussels into the main center
    for coordinating Russia- EU cooperation, which has been expanding.

    Chizhov's appointment came at a difficult time for the EU, with the
    "No" votes in the referendums on the European constitution in France
    and the Netherlands casting considerable doubts over the future
    of the document. But the diplomat is undeterred, saying that it is
    not yet clear how the ballyhoo over the European constitution will
    affect Russia.

    Moscow would like the plans and actions of its partners in Brussels
    to be more transparent, as this would simplify joint projects. Yet
    high-ranking EU officials have hinted that in the complicated
    situation in which the organization finds itself, it is particularly
    keen to prove its effectiveness, primarily in its relations with
    third countries. Russia would like to take full advantage of the
    opportunities this presents.

    Since Britain currently holds the EU presidency, the 16th EU-Russia
    summit, scheduled for December 4, will be held in London. Chizhov
    said that one of the key issues on the agenda would be the
    introduction of simpler visa regulations for Russians traveling to EU
    countries. Russian experts and their European counterparts have already
    made good progress in drafting two key agreements on simplifying visa
    regulations and on readmission. Brussels sees a connection between the
    two issues and is insisting that Moscow commits to readmitting deported
    illegal migrants. Moreover, the EU is referring both to Russians and
    to citizens of third countries who have traveled to Europe via Russia.

    Chizhov does not rule out the possibility of compromise over these
    conditions. Moscow's new man at the EU is optimistically predicting
    that the next stage of the visa negotiations will consider scrapping
    visas altogether.

    Contrary to what many Western analysts are saying, the EU is not
    making progress in this area conditional on Russia signing border
    treaties with Estonia and Latvia. Moscow and Brussels both regret
    that such treaties have not yet been signed and hope that a solution
    will eventually be found to these bilateral problems. "The ball is
    in the court of our Baltic colleagues," Chizhov said.

    The diplomat highlighted a relatively new and specific problem that
    has emerged within the Russia-EU energy dialogue, namely the need to
    work out conditions for trade in nuclear fuel cycle materials.

    With the enlargement of the organization last year from 15 to 25
    member states, the EU gained an additional 19 nuclear power plants.

    Of these, all but one were built by Soviet specialists or with Soviet
    technical assistance. (The only exception is the plant in Slovenia
    that was built by the company Westinghouse.) Accordingly, these 18
    nuclear power plants receive nuclear fuel using the same arrangement
    as similar facilities in some veteran EU countries, such as Finland:
    Russia supplies the plants with fresh nuclear fuel and retrieves
    nuclear waste. The EU and Russia should now formalize the conditions
    of trade in nuclear materials in a legally binding document.

    Russia's representative to the EU also does not see any obstacles to
    expanding cooperation in the seemingly sensitive and unstable region
    of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Russia is not laying
    claim to a monopoly of influence in the post-Soviet territory and is
    willing to develop dialogue with the EU in this area, especially as
    some CIS countries plan to join the EU.

    As for the "frozen conflicts" in the CIS, namely the Transdniester,
    Georgia-Abkhazia, Georgia-Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts,
    the EU is keen to help bring an end to these tensions. Chizhov said
    that Moscow was willing to discuss conflict settlement proposals,
    be they of a political or material nature.

    The initial ten-year EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement is
    due to expire on December 1, 2007. Article 106 of the agreement says
    that the agreement can be automatically renewed, so neither party
    expects a legal vacuum in their relations. However, it is evident
    today that the agreement no longer reflects the present level of
    EU-Russia relations and should be amended.

    It is too early to predict with any certainty what form a new agreement
    might take, whether it will be a new, comprehensive agreement, a
    short-term framework agreement with appendices on specific areas of
    cooperation, or a new wording of the old agreement.

    But the main issue is that Russia and the European Union will continue
    to need each other, and even more so in the future than they do today.
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