"This will not have a dramatic effect on Russia-EU relations," Sergei Yastrzhembsky said prior to an informal EU summit scheduled to begin in Finland, which will be attended by President Vladimir Putin.
The EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) will expire November 30, 2007. Both Brussels and Moscow initially said the agreement would automatically be extended yearly until one of the parties - and in practice, both parties - felt that it should be replaced with a new one. But first Moscow and then Brussels spoke of the need to draft a new agreement.
Yastrzhembsky said Russia was ready for talks on a new document, which will encompass all aspects of Russia's relations with the EU for years to come.
"We expect an announcement at the Russia-EU summit in Helsinki November 24 that the European Commission [the EU executive body] has offered a mandate to start talks [on the issue] with us," he said.
But he voiced concerns over attempts by some EU forces to orient the future agreement toward energy and economics. "We oppose that because it must meet other criteria set out in the fundamental document - long-term guidelines that will cover our main fields and interests of cooperation without aiming to adjust our economic relations with the EU."
The issue of the partnership and cooperation deal was the focus of the Russia-EU summit in the southern Russian resort city of Sochi May 25, along with the issue of visa facilitation.
Russia and the European Union signed an agreement on visa facilitation at the time. The visa agreement introduced relaxed visa requirements for certain categories of people for stays of up to 90 days, and is seen as Russia's move toward a visa-free zone with the EU.
Yastrzhembsky said Europe's concern over possible illegal immigration from Russia is a serious obstacle to establishing a common visa-free zone.
"We will not solve this problem unless we overcome the phantom fear persisting in Europe of a black wave of immigration from Russia if a visa-free zone is introduced," he said.
He said the readmission agreement, which was also signed at the Sochi summit, and which will come into full force in three year, will dispel Europe's fears.
The readmission document aims to ensure swift, efficient procedures for identifying, transporting, and repatriating individuals who have entered Russia or the EU illegally, or have overstayed their visas.
The official stressed that Russia and the EU reached a political decision to move toward a visa-free zone at the July summit of the Group of Eight industrialized nations in St. Petersburg, and that preparations for the event should begin.
