Brussels - European Union leaders agreed Thursday to harden
their common stance towards Russia by saying its withdrawal from core
Georgia was not a sufficient reason to re-open talks on a cooperation
deal with Moscow.
While welcoming the Russian pull-out from the areas adjacent to
the separatist enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, leaders
meeting for a summit in Brussels insisted that this was only an
'essential supplementary step' for the implementation of
international peace accords.
'All 27 EU member states welcome the withdrawals while
recognizing that they do not completely finish Russia's commitment
under the peace plan of August 12,' said British Foreign Minister
David Miliband.
The insistence by Britain, Sweden and the Baltic nations that
Russia needs to do more risks dashing the hopes of those politicians
who want a quick re-start of talks on a key strategic deal with
Russia.
At an emergency summit held on September 1, EU leaders decided to
freeze further talks on a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA)
with Russia 'until (its) troops have withdrawn to positions they held
prior to August 7,' when the war broke out.
Since then, EU nations have split between those who argue that
Russia's withdrawal from core Georgia is enough to re-start PCA
talks, and those who say Russia would also have to scale down its
strengthened presence in the two separatist enclaves.
On Thursday, EU leaders effectively delayed any decision until the
European Commission presents a 'full in-depth evaluation of EU-Russia
relations,' to be discussed by EU foreign ministers on November 10.
That leaves foreign ministers just days to decide on a relaunch of
the PCA talks ahead of an EU-Russia summit set for November 14.
Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said a number of unresolved
issues still remained on the table. These include the return of
internally displaced people, allowing international monitors to enter
South Ossetia and Abkhazia, as well as Russia's continued presence in
the disputed areas of the Kodori valley and the Akhalgori region,
both of which lie on the borders between core Georgia and the
two separatist enclaves.
'A lot will depend on how the Russians are going to handle this
issue in the coming three to four weeks,' Paet told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.
The EU summit ended a day after a first round of peace talks
between Georgia and Russia collapsed in Geneva, prompting EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana to express scepticism about the chance of
those talks succeeding.
'After the big tension in August, it is very difficult to get
face-to-face talks. But we will do everything possible,' Solana said.
The Geneva talks, co-hosted by the EU, United Nations and
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), are now
expected to resume on November 18.
Paet did not exclude the possibility that EU foreign ministers
would postpone any decision on restarting PCA talks until after the
next round of Geneva talks.
The EU has sent a monitoring mission (EUMM) to Georgia to oversee
Russia's withdrawal from core Georgia, as agreed in an international
peace deal brokered by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
The PCA is a contract governing matters such as trade, investment,
environmental protection, tourism, and cultural exchanges between the
EU and Russia.
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