Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-12-12-Speech-2-159"
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"en.20001212.8.2-159"2
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"Mr President, I should like to thank Mr Oostlander for his outstanding and comprehensive report, for the extraordinary amount of time which he has invested in it and for his receptiveness to suggestion.
Anyone looking at Russia from the outside and with the odd personal experience from visiting the country itself and speaking to Russian counterparts will soon be in danger of selectively tailoring reality in the Russian Federation to fit his personal image. Current discussions on the Russian state symbol show that there are several takes on reality in the Russian Federation. The national flag of Peter the Great flutters alongside the army's red flag and the national coat of arms showing the Tsarist double-headed eagle is displayed while Stalinist national anthems are being sung. These symbols are perhaps not as contradictory as they first appear, each reflecting as it does a facet of an authoritarian state.
But a whole spectrum lies between these diametrically-opposed historical perspectives and pro-active Russian society will certainly refuse to be reduced to or guided towards any of these authoritarian alternatives. I personally become more and more enthusiastic when I meet young, open, well-educated Russians and more and more depressed by Russian structures, be they state, economic or even mafia structures. The best way we can help the Russian Federation is, on the one hand, to refrain from wholesale damnation and clearly address unhealthy structures or individual policies, such as the Chechen policy and, on the one hand, to value positive developments, without talking up, writing up or thinking up the Russian Federation as a whole. We can contribute towards stability from the outside by sending the Russian Federation clear and specific signals as to how we wish to configure our cooperation. Once Poland and the Baltic States accede to the EU, we hope to use the greater geographical proximity to the Russian Federation to strengthen cross-border cooperation in the area of Saint Petersburg, Nowgorod and Kaliningrad. Transport, energy, the environment and internal security are right at the top of the list of possibilities.
Negotiations to find creative solutions as regards the future freedom of transit for the people of Kaliningrad through Lithuania and Poland should also be completed before Poland and Lithuania accede to the EU. Why not make the
of Kaliningrad a pilot project on two counts: first in relation to the potential for economic cooperation between the Russian Federation and the EU and, secondly, to test the Russian Federation's ability to implement fundamental reforms such as rural, fiscal and administrative reforms in advance in this area with our support? That is the way to bind the Russian Federation to the EU."@en1
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"Oblast"1
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