EU-Russia relations: Partnership on ice? by Ian Bond
When President Vladimir Putin comes to Brussels for the EU-Russia summit at the end of January, his mind may be elsewhere. Ten days later he will open the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The EU-Russia Summit will have a slightly lower profile. It was postponed from November 2013, so this year there will be three such meetings. That is two too many. The EU has one summit a year with other major powers, including the US. Russia alone gets two, for no added value. The relationship is process-heavy, but substancelight. From summit meetings to dialogues on ‘forest-based industries’, EU-Russia encounters generate progress reports reporting no progress. One from March 2013, for example, notes that the last meeting of an EU-Russia dialogue on industrial products in May 2012 discussed (apparently without agreement) Commission proposals to wind up non-operational working groups – hardly a major problem in trade relations. The recommendations from the EU-Russia Industrialists’ Roundtable – where major companies on both sides meet – have an air of déjà vu about them: before every summit they urge removal of barriers to trade, improved conditions for investors and an end to discrimination against foreign investors. Leaders congratulate themselves on constructive talks but take no decisions on the recommendations. In the real world, however, the EU-Russia relationship is going badly, despite regular repetition of the mantra of ‘strategic partnership’.
In recent months Russia has held military exercises to practise invading its EU neighbours; it has obstructed EU exports and strong-armed Ukraine into not signing an association agreement with the EU. It is time that the EU adopted a new approach to its difficult neighbour. There is a fundamental divergence in the objectives of the two parties. In the immediate post-Soviet period, both sides expected Russia to become more like the rest of Europe. In its 1999 Common Strategy for Russia, the EU welcomed “Russia’s return to its rightful place in the European family”. Putin spoke in 2003 of Russia “becoming truly integrated with Europe”. That is no longer his aim. Russia is challenging the EU across the board. In trade relations, despite its 2012 accession to the WTO, Russia was responsible for one third of all the protectionist measures introduced by members of the G20 in 2013 and has failed to implement WTO pre-accession commitments, in particular to