Russian and EU diplomats failed last week to coordinate the start of talks to replace the current Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which expires in 2007, over Poland's demand that Moscow first ratify the Energy Charter with Europe and lift an embargo on Polish agricultural exports to Russia.
"We expected an announcement to be made at the [Russia-EU] summit [in Helsinki on November 24] that the European Commission has received a mandate. The Russian side has such a mandate, the delegation has already been formed, and we expected the same from the EU. But one of its member states instigated problems," Sergei Yastrzhembsky said.
The official said Russia will not discuss Poland's veto on the talks, as the problem is purely an EU matter. "Our involvement in resolving the problem would be inappropriate, as Russia is not an EU member."
He spoke up against dramatizing the situation, as the treaty can be prolonged beyond 2007. "Our relations with the EU are based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which is effective throughout the next year, and which includes provisions that enable us to extend the treaty for a period we [Russia] and the EU consider necessary," Yastrzhembsky said. "And there will be no legal vacuum in relations with the EU."
Russia banned agricultural imports from Poland last year, citing health risks. But Warsaw said the embargo was in retaliation for Poland's support of the "orange revolution" in Ukraine in late 2004, when Western-leaning political forces came to power in the former Soviet state.
Yastrzhembsky said Poland must focus on the problem of poor-quality meat supplies to Russia, which he said was a routine problem irrelevant to Russia-EU relations. "We are aware that Poland knows how to deal with the problem, and I do not think that red tape and delays in solving the problem should complicate relations between Russia and the EU," he said.
He said the fact that Poland has opened criminal cases related to deliveries of poor-quality meat suggests that the country concedes the use of counterfeit supply certificates. "However, all 24 cases have been closed lately on some vague pretexts, but that is a different question," the official said.
Poland's other demand, that Russia ratify the Energy Charter Treaty, which sets down international principles in energy trade, transit and investment, has encountered Moscow's opposition, as opening up access to its pipelines for European companies - one of the charter's requirements - runs counter to Russia's interests.
