Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-11-29-Speech-3-061"
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"en.20061129.13.3-061"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the eighteenth EU-Russia Summit was held last week in Helsinki. In accordance with established practice, the Summit dealt with the ‘four common spaces’ the two sides share, as well as international issues more widely. The Northern Dimension Summit between the EU, Russia, Norway and Iceland was held at the same time.
The Northern Dimension policy covers a vast geographical area, including the Baltic Sea, Northwest Russia, and the Arctic regions. It supports the implementation of the four common spaces between the EU and Russia in this geographical area. Moreover, the Northern Dimension focuses on special issues in northern regions, such as the vulnerable environment, indigenous peoples and health.
A joint steering group of partners is to be set up for the Northern Dimension to speed up practical cooperation. The existing Northern Dimension partnerships – that is, the Environmental Partnership and the Partnership in Public Health and Well-being – we want to continue and develop further. We shall also aim to examine the potential for applying the partnership model in the transport and logistics sector and strengthen cooperation in the area of energy efficiency.
Our wide-ranging discussion on matters crucial to relations between the EU and Russia was conducted in a constructive atmosphere. With regard to the new EU-Russia treaty, we saw that the process of establishing a negotiating mandate had been an intensive one over the previous few weeks. The EU will continue to deal with the issue of the mandate, with the aim of commencing talks as soon as possible. Four Permanent Partnership Council ministerial meetings have been held this autumn to enhance concrete cooperation. These have been between the EU and Russian Ministers for Transport, the Environment, Justice and Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs.
With regard to the Common Economic Space, we found that there had been positive developments in many sectors of cooperation. Agreement was reached at the Summit on charges for Siberian overflights and putting an end to them. Furthermore, European Union and Russian Heads of State or Government recognised the enormous common interest that they had and the dependence on both sides in energy relations. The European Union highlighted the importance of the principles of transparency, predictability, reciprocity and openness in energy markets, investment and the transit infrastructure. These principles should also be incorporated in the new EU-Russia treaty. The Union insisted that the parties must guarantee their commitment to comply with the Energy Charter.
Other themes of the discussion were the growth in trade and investment between the European Union and Russia, traffic congestion and the development of an electronic customs clearance system, on which we made very obvious headway. We said that progress in the talks on Russia’s membership of the World Trade Organisation will have a very positive effect on the economic space shared by the EU and Russia. Negotiations on extensive and comprehensive free trade between the EU and Russia can be started when Russia has joined the WTO. The dialogue on the environment endorsed at the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council (Environment) in October will create a basis for wide-ranging cooperation.
Cooperation in the area of justice and home affairs has made progress in many sectors. We considered it of major importance that the agreements on visa facilitation and the readmission of illegal immigrants signed in May should come into force as quickly as possible.
On human rights, the European Union voiced its concern regarding the situation in Chechnya, and was of the opinion that it was important that all human rights crimes should be investigated thoroughly and individuals guilty of them brought to justice. The EU also mentioned the matter of preconditions for developments in the rule of law, for freedom of expression and for an independent media, including investigations into the murder of Anna Politkovskaya and the Mikhail Khodorkovski case. The EU referred to the human rights consultations organised at the start of November, which went more deeply into these issues and examined the human rights situation in Russia more exhaustively. The EU said that it was committed to closer cooperation on human rights and developing consultations on the subject.
The European Union and Russia stressed the importance of direct contact between their citizens as a basis for a strategic partnership. This partnership can be enhanced in particular in the domains of education and culture. Cooperation between universities, as well as student exchange programmes between the Union and Russia, have been high up on the agenda this autumn, and we want to put effort into this in the future too.
Our view was that cooperation in international matters is important for security and prosperity in Europe as a whole. We recognised how positively relations had developed in the context of several international matters. Cooperation between the Union and Russia must nevertheless be made to move in a more obvious direction. Some of the international issues raised were the Western Balkans, the Middle East peace process, the situation regarding North Korea, Georgia, Belarus and Moldova.
A Northern Dimension Summit was held to run alongside the EU-Russia Summit. At this summit, new basic documents, the Political Declaration and the Framework Document, were approved. With these decisions in place, the Northern Dimension will be renewed from the start of next year. The renewed Northern Dimension represents the common policy of four equal partners: the European Union, Russia, Norway and Iceland."@en1
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