By Anne-France White - 17th November 2006
Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen flies to Warsaw today in a bid to save the new EU-Russia partnership agreement.
During a working dinner, Vanhanen will try to convince Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski to endorse the pact ahead of the EU-Russia summit on November 24.
Warsaw is blocking the launch of the talks, saying Russia must first drop an embargo on Polish meat and plant exports.
In an attempt to find a way out of the impasse, the European commission is trying to set up high-level talks in Moscow on the food import situation.
EU food inspectors are also flying to Poland to give Polish food the seal of approval to convince Russia to drop the food ban, which is worth €400 million a year.
Health commissioner Markos Kyprianou will also meet with Polish farm minister Andrzej Lepper in the margins of next week’s agriculture council to discuss the issue if Vanhanen’s visit proves unsuccessful.
Continuing Polish opposition could spell a crisis for next week’s key EU-Russia talks, as negotiations cannot start until a mandate is acquired from all 25 EU member states.
The current EU-Russia partnership agreement runs out next year but EU officials are playing down any talk of a deadline as the bilateral row continues.
The EU executive has said the situation will not create a “legal vacuum” when the existing 1997 pact expires as it will simply be extended in its current form.
But lack of Polish backing for the pact would be embarrassing, with Russia an increasingly major trade and energy partner for the EU.
“We are unwilling to back off... without a clear political signal from Russia,” Polish foreign minister Anna Fotyga told reporters this week.
“Russia uses energy as a political tool, it uses trade restrictions as a political tool, so there should be no surprise we are using the tools we have at our disposal,” she added.
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