A VIGOROUS debate is taking place among European Union governments about how far, and how quickly, to restore the EU's relations with Moscow to normal after Russia's invasion of Georgia in August, according to an internal EU policy document.
The paper lists numerous difficulties in EU-Russian relations, ranging from trade disputes over timber, meat and fish to poor legal protection for EU investors in Russia's energy sector.
But the document strikes a positive note in assessing Russian compliance with the EU-brokered agreements to end the fighting in Georgia. It also talks of the "great potential for productive co-operation" in calming other so-called "frozen conflicts" in the former Soviet Union.
The document, entitled Key Outstanding Issues for the EU in its Relations with Russia, suggests holding fewer set-piece meetings with Russian officials because they too often lack substance. It also airs the idea of cutting the number of summits between Russian and EU leaders to one from two a year.
However, the document is a draft paper and so does not represent the EU's final views on the subject. Diplomats said the paper struck a balance between countries such as France, Germany and Italy that were keen to bring relations back to normal, and others such as the UK, Lithuania and Poland that opposed sending a positive signal to Moscow so soon after the invasion of Georgia.
At the start of September the EU suspended talks with Russia on a long-term partnership agreement and asked the European Commission to prepare a thorough review of EU-Russian relations. The commission's analysis is due to be discussed by EU foreign ministers at a meeting on November 10th, four days before a scheduled EU-Russia summit in Nice. Ministerial-level contacts between the EU and Russia have continued in spite of the Georgia crisis. Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, is due to visit St Petersburg tomorrow.
Some EU governments say a resumption of the partnership talks should depend not just on Russia's post-war behaviour in Georgia, but on the degree of progress made in talks on the two breakaway regions of Georgia.
Disputes between Georgia and Russia caused a first round of talks on October 15th to collapse, and a new session has been scheduled for November 18th.
Nicolas Sarkozy, president of France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, told the European parliament last Tuesday that he did not view Russia as a rival to the EU. European policymakers should try to bring Moscow closer to "European values" by laying the basis of a "common economic space between Russia and the EU", he said.
Paddy Ashdown, a former UK politician who now heads the EU-Russia Centre think-tank, said: "In times of tension it is essential to maintain channels of communication. That is not to say business as usual . . . We should have no illusions about Russia today. The present leadership certainly does not share common values with the EU." - (Financial Times service)