Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-03-10-Speech-3-440"
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"en.20100310.24.3-440"2
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"Madam President, I understand that there are two questions, one of which refers to visas, to the visa requirement for Russian and European citizens, and the other refers to relations between the European Union and Russia following the Stockholm Summit and to Russia joining the World Trade Organisation. These are the two questions as I understand them, Madam President.
With regard to Russia joining the World Trade Organisation, the European Union, supports it, but it is Russia that has to adopt the measures in order to make progress on this.
With regard to the new agreement between the European Union and Russia, both parties agree that it would be good to have a broad new agreement. The agreement on partnership and cooperation between the European Union and Russia, which was negotiated in the 1990s, is outdated in many respects. A great deal has happened and a great deal has changed since the 1990s, and we need to move forward towards this new agreement, in which we are ambitious. We have set the bar high and, if possible, we want to cover all the areas of EU-Russia relations.
Progress has been made in some areas of these negotiations. Other areas are going more slowly, which is the case for trade and investment. In any event, it is very important to us that there are solid clauses and solid agreements with Russia on trade, investment and energy.
With regard to the free trade arrangements, we agree with a free trade agreement being negotiated once Russia has joined the World Trade Organisation, if and when this happens.
With regard to the liberalisation of visas, this is an issue of major political importance that affects Russian and European Union citizens very directly. I think that on this matter, we share the intention of visas being facilitated when this is possible.
What would be ideal would be the liberalisation of visas, in other words, removing the visa requirement, but, of course, there is still a great deal left to do in this respect. Furthermore, we need to balance the assets that are at stake, which concern security, and, furthermore, this always has to be done on a reciprocal basis.
With regard to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, each of these countries has a particular situation as far as visa policy is concerned, and we cannot currently predict how much progress is going to be made in those three countries in comparison with the dialogue on visas that we are conducting with Russia.
With regard to the matter of visas, I would like to point out that in 2003, the Council adopted regulations establishing a specific transit document and a facilitated rail transit document. Three years later, the Commission concluded that the entry into force of this system was going smoothly and that both partners were satisfied.
From a long-term perspective – we are talking about the Kaliningrad region in relation to the rest of the Russian Federation – the facilitated transit regime, as it is called, would depend on the future implementation of agreements on visa policies between the European Union and the Russian Federation.
In a joint declaration following the meeting of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on justice and home affairs on 2 December last year, the participants decided to debate possible changes to the European Union’s agreement with Russia on granting visas in order to make travel for European and Russian citizens more accessible, specifically for the residents of the region of Kaliningrad.
In turn, according to the same joint declaration, the European Union and Russia hoped to negotiate and conclude local border traffic agreements between Russia and the neighbouring Member States of the European Union that might be interested in doing so. In this context, Regulation (EC) No 1931/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council laying down rules on local border traffic at the external land borders of the Member States and amending the provisions of the Schengen Convention authorises the Member States to conclude bilateral agreements with third countries in order to apply the local border traffic rules.
The negotiation of these agreements is, in this case, a matter that is the responsibility of the Member States concerned and of the Russian Federation. The Council, in any case, notes that negotiations are also under way between Lithuania and Russia and between Poland and Russia.
With regard to the question relating to strategic relations between the European Union and Russia, the Council can inform Parliament that following the summit held with Russia in Stockholm in November, there will be another summit during the six-month Spanish Presidency. It will be held in Russia, between the European Union and Russia, which means that there is fresh impetus for relations between both sides.
There is obviously always the possibility of there being complex difficulties in these relations, and there can also be disagreements, but the relationship between the European Union and Russia is a broad and multifaceted one. We have growing economic and trade links, and – we have to admit – a high level of interdependency with regard to energy, common interests in other areas that relate to problems that go beyond even our respective countries, and challenges, including global challenges, which we need to tackle and which we should tackle as jointly as possible.
It will therefore always be beneficial for us to seek opportunities to strengthen our relations with Russia, while always standing firm on our principles and on the values on which the European Union is founded."@en1
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