Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-04-01-Speech-3-055"
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"en.20090401.12.3-055"2
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". − Madam President, debates on Russia are never easy. Russia, on the one hand, is an important global partner, but, on the other hand, it is also a big neighbour, and there I think you have two sides that do not always easily converge.
We raise these issues regularly with the high authorities: myself with Sergey Lavrov, and President Barroso with his interlocutors. We also use our twice-yearly human rights consultations to do so as well. The discussions in the bilateral meeting between President Barroso and President Medvedev on 6 February also included an exchange on human rights.
President Medvedev himself suggested that these exchanges continue at the 21-22 May summit, and we shall take him up on that. For instance, the attack on human rights activist Lev Ponomarev last night is the latest reminder of how difficult the situation for human rights defenders is in Russia. But let me say that the two strands have clearly been reflected in the mandate that the Council has given the Commission to negotiate. Both are there, and this is the content of our mandate. Therefore, I think the right way is to follow up on this mandate and, as I said, we are always ready to report on the follow up of our negotiations, as we have just been doing.
On the one hand, being a global partner, we see Russia as a real partner, as I said before. For instance, in the Middle East, in seeking a solution between Israel and Palestine and on many other of these issues. Or on Afghanistan and Pakistan, yesterday in the conference in The Hague, Russia had an important part to play; or on Iran, or on the non-proliferation issues, or on the big global issues like climate change, which was also mentioned, or now the financial and economic crisis. Everybody is being affected by that. This is true for us, but it is also true for Russia and for many other global partners. Therefore I think we have to see this very clearly, but at the same time we also have to see Russia as a great neighbour, where sometimes we do not see eye to eye in the common neighbourhood. And we have a common neighbourhood – some of you have mentioned that, be it Moldova or Nagorno-Karabakh or, of course, Georgia. There we have to make sure we come much closer to each other, but also speak frankly on the difficulties and the differences that exist.
One of these issues is the ‘Eastern Partnership’, and we discussed the Eastern Partnership only last week in Parliament. The chief goal of the Eastern Partnership, which is concerned with six of our neighbouring countries, is to help those countries who want to come much more into line with the European Union on certain key issues like standards of governments, freer trade and others. In these activities, I think it is important that we have these countries as partners. But at the same time we have also said, on the multilateral platform, that we are, in principle, open to third countries like Russia on an ad hoc basis, as appropriate; certainly Russia is also a full member in the Black Sea Synergy, where regional matters are handled.
So there is also a chance to work together in order to overcome some difficulties that exist. On the other hand, gas. With gas, we know – I said it clearly before and I will repeat it – we are interdependent; we know that. As we also know, the gas crisis has diminished the trust in our partners. It has underlined the importance of energy provisions in the coming EU-Russia and EU-Ukraine agreements, and they will be there.
We must step up the work to create an internal energy market, but also increase efficiency and diversify supplies. The new agreement with Russia should therefore lay down, as we always say, legally binding reciprocal commitments. And, in parallel to the new agreement and for the short term, we are working with Russia to make the early warning mechanism more efficient, as I said before. We should also foresee monitoring and conflict prevention and resolution, and this should also involve Belarus and Ukraine.
We know that Russia is a very important energy partner for us, contributing 40% of the gas we import and 20% of the gas we consume. This is, as I said before, a relationship of interdependence. Since we represent over two thirds of their export revenue – which has made a very significant contribution to Russia’s economic development – it is essential that there should be no repeat of the events of last January, and therefore we are working with both the Ukrainians and the Russians to prevent that.
On human rights we do not always see eye to eye. On the one hand, the EU and Russia share common international commitments, as I said, through the instruments that we have signed together at the UN, at the OECD and at the Council of Europe. These commitments reflect values and include the obligation to respect the decisions of the bodies they set up. That is particularly true for the European Court of Human Rights, but it is also evident that the EU and Russia interpret commitments differently.
The European Union and Russia have chosen the path of dialogue on these issues, and this is the right way. This means that we must also listen to the concerns the Russian side expresses sometimes with regard to some developments inside the European Union including, for instance, the issue of Russian-speaking minorities.
But it is also true, as the President-in-Office of the Council said, that there are clear concerns about the failure to respect human rights in the Russian Federation, and continuing cases of attacks on human rights defenders, journalists and others reflect badly on Russia."@en1
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