Polish veto derails EU-Russia summit agenda
ANDREW RETTMAN
23.11.2006 @ 15:56 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU and Russia will not start talks on a new post-2007 "Strategic Partnership Treaty" (SPT) at a summit in Helsinki on Friday (24 November) after Poland on Thursday upheld its veto on the issue, despite intense two-day long negotiations in Brussels.
The crux of the problem was that Poland demanded an explicit "permanent veto mechanism" to be inserted into the draft SPT, that would allow any one of the 25 EU member states to unilaterally trigger suspension of EU-Russia negotiations at any stage without going through a complex legal procedure controlled by the European Commission.
Some diplomats said it is a pity that the EU cannot appear united in front of Moscow (Photo: Russian Embassy)
But the Finnish EU presidency declined the Polish proposal, offering to insert political declarations on EU "solidarity" into the draft SPT instead, in a move deemed inadequate by Poland to "guarantee" that the EU would defend its national interests if, for example, a Russian ban on Polish meat exports is not lifted 50 days from now.
"It's a pity Poland put this proposal on the table so late, if they had done it three days ago, there might have been a deal. We were very close," a senior EU diplomat, who took part in the talks, told EUobserver. "The other member states couldn't accept this mechanism, it would have made the [treaty] negotiations very difficult."
"The [Polish] veto will not be lifted today or tomorrow, maybe next week," an EU official said, with the commission now shifting into damage-limitation mode by explaining that the summit has plenty left on its agenda, such as Iran, Georgia and human rights, while the treaty talks can be launched down the line.
Poland's negative decision comes after European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Wednesday personally telephoned Polish prime minster Jaroslaw Kaczynski to offer his condolences on a mining tragedy and to promise that he would suspend EU-Russia talks in future if Russia used any dirty tricks against Poland.
Commenting on the phone call, a commission spokeswoman used unusually sharp language to describe Brussels' approach to Moscow, saying Mr Barroso "has been insisting with the Finnish EU presidency to put pressure on Russia" to break the year-long trade embargo on Polish meat exports.
Speaking at the start of the veto row two weeks ago, Polish Europe minister Witold Sobkow said the EU puts the interests of new member states second compared to the old EU15, with Warsaw blaming the commission for taking a weak approach to Moscow on the food ban over the past year.
But Brussels has been seeking to deflect blame for the veto row, saying trade commissioner Peter Mandelson and health commissioner Markos Kyprianou have pushed Russia on several occasions to hold trilateral Brussels-Moscow-Warsaw talks on the €1 million a day Polish meat embargo.
Commission food experts in Warsaw on Thursday declared, based on early findings, that Polish food exports meet EU safety and certification standards, calling Russia's embargo "disproportionate" in a finding that bolsters Warsaw's analysis the ban was imposed for political reasons.
Meanwhile, both the EU and Russia are now left wondering how the veto dispute will colour future talks on the landmark EU-Russia SPT, with Poland saying the row has seen EU states wake up to the need to take a hard line on Vladimir Putin's Russia but with some critics arguing it has left the EU looking divided and weak.
"There is more sympathy for Poland now than when this veto dispute began," a diplomat from one of the Nordic EU states said.
"It is a pity that the EU cannot appear united in front of a third party, especially when that third party is as important as Russia," another diplomat from one of the major western EU powers stated.
