MOSCOW, May 23 (RIA Novosti) - The European Union will focus on the future of relations with Russia, implementing four joint projects and key international issues at a May 25 summit, a EU commissioner said Tuesday.
Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU commissioner for external affairs, said the existing Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between EU and Russia needed to be updated - it could expire next year if one side chooses to renounce it - to embrace the four common spaces agreed at last year's Moscow summit in the economy; freedom, security and justice; external security; and science and culture.
Ferrero-Waldner said the new agreement should be comprehensive, reflecting Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization, which it wants to join this year.
"It should embrace the common spaces, which did not exist when the existing agreement was signed, and it should reflect Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization - providing for greater trade and economic integration," she said.
With European energy consumers talking about diversifying supplies away from Russia in the wake of a spat over prices for natural gas with Ukraine and demands for access to foreign markets made by Gazprom, the commissioner said energy would be a central issue when officials meet in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
"Energy is a fundamental element in the partnership between Russia and the EU - for both partners," she said.
Some sections in Europe reacted angrily to Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller's comments in April that the concern could look to China and South American markets if its expansion plans in Europe were blocked. Analysts said Russia was denying similar access to Russian hydrocarbon deposits on the basis of national security, a point not lost on Ferrero-Waldner.
"This relationship can only grow on the basis of reciprocity in markets, infrastructure and investments," she said. "So certainly, how to get the most out of this interdependence will be a major topic at the summit."
The EU commissioner said Russia remained Europe's most reliable and important energy partner and urged the country to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, which was signed in The Hague in December 1991 as a mechanism for energy cooperation between eastern and western Europe.
In 2003, 51 European and Asian states joined the charter. Seventeen countries and 10 international organizations have the status of observers. Russia has signed but not ratified the treaty.
"It would be excellent if Russia seized the moment, as President of the G8, to move towards ratification of the Energy Charter Treaty," Ferrero-Waldner said. "This will create a win-win energy relationship for the EU and Russia."
The commissioner also said the EU and Russia, which will host a summit of leaders from the Group of Eight industrialized nations in July, had been cooperating increasingly on international issues and their positions largely complemented each other.
"On Iran, we both share the goal of avoiding the emergence of a nuclear arms state, and we appreciate the very constructive role that Russia has played in trying to find a diplomatic solution," she said.
The commissioner also praised Russia's role within the Middle East Quartet (the EU, Russia, U.S. and UN), which is trying to broker an agreement to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, even though she mentioned differences over relations with radical Palestinian group Hamas.
In March, Moscow hosted a delegation from the movement - which the United States and European Union recognize as a terrorist organization unlike Russia - and called on it to recognize Israel and give up violence after its January election win in the Palestinian Authority.
"Although we have different approaches to contacts with Hamas, we are absolutely in agreement that Hamas needs to renounce violence, recognize Israel and commit to the Roadmap," Ferrero-Waldner said.
The commissioner also said the summit would provide a good opportunity to discuss Belarus.
In particular, the commissioner said that the EU had frozen the assets of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who was reelected in March in vote widely regarded as flawed by Europe, and more than 30 other politicians who the EU considers to have been involved in violence and intimidation in the poll.
But Ferrero-Waldner said the EU nevertheless supported the Belarusian people. "It is important that Belarusians understand that the measures we are taking will only affect those who in our view are cheating the people of their rights," she said. "We will take no measures that hurt the rest of the population."
