EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Long-delayed partnership talks between the EU and Russia have hit another stumbling block, as Lithuania refuses to approve the launch due to bilateral disputes with Moscow, including one over energy security.

"Our position has not been fully taken into account to date and I am prepared to demand that the issue of the mandate for the EU-Russian talks is taken off the agenda," Lithuanian foreign minister Petras Vaitiekunas told AFP on Monday (28 April).

The warning came only a day before EU foreign ministers are to gather in Luxembourg and approve a negotiating mandate for the talks on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement - a treaty covering areas such as the economy, external security or justice and home affairs.

The mandate outlines precisely what the European Commission's manoeuvring space will be during the EU-Russia talks planned to be launched at a June EU-Russia summit in Siberia.

"We want cooperation with Russia - we are sure it is very important for all the EU - but we also want security, solidarity and justice," Mr Vaitiekunas said.

Vilnius has linked its veto threat to several issues, including Russia's decision in July 2006 to disrupt oil supplies to Lithuania via the Druzhba pipeline and the 1991 killing of seven Lithuanian border guards at the country's Medininkai border post by Soviet special forces - an event that took long before the Baltic state joined the EU.

"We want the provisions of an energy charter to be obligatory and that the Medininkai incident be mentioned in the declaration," Mr Vaitiekunas was cited as saying by AFP.

But despite a veto threat, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed confidence over Lithuania dropping its objections.

"If what our EU colleagues are hinting at comes about, then we can start these negotiations in the nearest future, and announce it during the summit in Khanty-Mansiysk," he said, according to Russia's Interfax news agency.

A pre-accession deal for Serbia?
Today's meeting in Luxembourg may be more positive on another front however. EU ministers set to find a way to reaffirm Serbia's "European perspective" ahead of next week's elections.

On 11 May, current President Boris Tadic's pro-European Democrats will face off against the nationalists of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) - the largest party in parliament. Their other major opponents are their former coalition partners, the DSS - the conservative party led by Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica.

The EU is unlikely to sign a pre-accession deal with Serbia on Tuesday - the so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) - in a bid to boost the pro-EU forces ahead of the elections but it is looking for other political signals.

While a large majority of member states would back signing the SAA, the Netherlands and Belgium have been strongly opposing it, asking that Serbia fully cooperate with the UN war crimes tribunal first.

Last week however, the Netherlands indicated a softening of its position, saying it was prepared for a "creative solution" that would "promote trust in Europe among Serbian voters."

In addition, a Belgian foreign affairs ministry spokesperson said on Sunday (27 April) that the two countries had submitted "a compromise proposal under which the accord [SAA] could be signed in June", on the condition that Serbia does not "benefit from the advantages of this accord without full cooperation with the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)," press agencies reported.

For his part, Serbian foreign minister Vuk Jeremic arrived in Luxembourg to lobby governments on the SAA.

However, not everyone agrees that signing the SAA now would be a good idea, with some analysts arguing that it may have an opposite effect than the one intended.

"Public anger over Western support for Kosovo's independence is such that any attempt by the EU or US to support pro-Western parties prior to the elections risks strengthening the nationalist vote," the International Crisis Group said in a statement last week.

Russia and Serbia relations top EU foreign ministers' meeting