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THE RUSSIAN-POLISH RELATIONS
NIKOLAY BUKHARIN,
Leading researcher of the Institute for International Economic and Political Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow
The reason why Poland, on the eve of the Russia-EU Summit in Helsinki, tried to deprive the European Commission of the mandate to carry on the negotiations on the new Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between Russia and the EU is that the Polish authorities had failed to solve the problem of lifting the temporary embargo on import of the Polish agricultural products to Russia.
Moscow put the embargo because the imported agricultural products did not meet the phytosanitary and veterinary requirements. For all that, Russia is satisfied with quality of the Polish products. The problem is that in recent years Poland has turned into the gateway through which the counterfeit products are supplied from other countries to Russia.
In any case, the Russian authorities should have stopped this activity. But Moscow postponed imposition of the embargo since it hoped that Warsaw would control the export and import of the agricultural products properly.
However, Poland showed its feebleness in solving this issue. After the embargo had been imposed, the country decided to resort to the blackmail and ultimatums and to take advantage of the expiration of the Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation between Russia and the EU adopted in 1994.
Poland decided to put veto upon the negotiations on the Agreement and demanded to lift the embargo. Russia has commented that this issue is outside the EU competence and it applies to the bilateral Russian-Polish relations. So, Russia is not going to carry on the negotiations within the Russia-Poland-EU framework.
As a result, Poland has put itself over a barrel. In principle, Russia is interested in signing a new Agreement. But if the negotiations make difficult progress, nothing can prevent Russia from prolonging the existing Agreement up to 2007 and more.
Of course, Poland’s demarche will make the atmosphere of the forthcoming Summit nervous. But I think that the embargo’s lifting will not be a central issue at the meeting of the European leaders. The main agenda of the Summit has nothing to do with this problem.
Poland reports that it will back up the veto until Russia signs the Energy Charter. However, Russia’s position on the Charter is well-known. It is clear that this situation can not be resolved quickly.
As a result, the decision on the veto undermines Poland’s energy interests. Polish authorities come out for the single energy policy within the EU. But the breakdown of the talks on the new Agreement will result in Russia’s solving the problems of energy supply to the EU countries on bilateral basis.
November 23, 2006
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