EU leaders arrived in Stockholm last night for an economic summit that could be overshadowed by the spread of foot-and-mouth disease and rising tension in Macedonia. Sweden's Prime Minister, Mr Goran Persson, insisted yesterday that the leaders would hold firm to their agenda of economic reforms aimed at making the EU more competitive.
But he acknowledged that this morning's session would be dominated by a meeting with the Russian President, Mr Putin. Improving relations with Russia is among the priorities of Sweden's six-month EU Presidency and Mr Persson hopes to make progress on economic ties with Moscow and determining the future of Russia's Baltic enclave, Kaliningrad.
"We want it to be about concrete things. But we'll also be speaking critically about human rights violations in Chechnya," he said.
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have criticised the decision to hold economic talks with Mr Putin while Russian forces continue to abuse human rights in Chechnya.
"The EU should stop pretending it can achieve normal relations with Russia while human rights abuses against Chechen civilians continue and while the Russian government repeatedly refuses access to independent human rights monitors," Amnesty said in a statement.
Among the issues to be discussed by EU foreign ministers with their Russian counterpart is the US plan to start a National Missile Defence system - a proposal that Russia views as a threat to its security and a breach of disarmament treaties. Most EU states, although uneasy about the US plan, have moved towards accepting it. But Ireland and France remain openly critical of the proposal.
The EU leaders will express solidarity with the Macedonian government when the President, Mr Boris Trajkovski, makes a brief visit to the summit. Sweden's Foreign Minister, Ms Anna Lindh, joined Mr Javier Solana and Mr Chris Patten on a high-level EU visit to Skopje yesterday.
Ms Lindh expressed the EU's support for Macedonia's efforts to become a tolerant, multi-cultural society and warned violent Albanian rebels that their campaign will receive no backing from the international community.
"Extremists will achieve nothing through violence," she said.
NATO and the EU have adopted a common approach of putting political pressure on the Albanian rebels and playing down the likelihood of military intervention. The US has no appetite for a further military engagement in the Balkans and although some in the EU view the crisis as a chance to demonstrate Europe's new foreign policy identity, most are reluctant to send their soldiers to fight against guerrillas.
Although Mr Persson is keen to avoid the summit's economic agenda from being drowned out by other issues, he was downbeat yesterday on the prospects of finding agreement on a key issue - the creation of an integrated market for financial services.
"I am sorry to say I am not confident at all. But we will try hard. We want to go head with it.
