No breakthroughs in EU-Russia summit despite presence of Moscow-friendly Klaus

One of the last major meetings to take place under the Czech EU Presidency has come to a close – the EU-Russia summit in the eastern city of Khabarovsk, near the Chinese border. It was not, by all accounts, a great success, with no breakthrough on any of the issues that divide Russia and the EU. And it seems not even the presence of the Czech Republic’s Russophile president Václav Klaus in the driving seat had much effect.

Dmitry Medvedev and Václav Klaus (right), photo: CTK

Long before the summit began, Russia-watchers were already drawing attention to the venue for this meeting with the European Union. Khabarovsk lies in the far east of Russia – 8,500 km from Moscow and just 30 km from China – and the EU delegation led by Václav Klaus in his role of president of the European Council had a long way to go. And for what? ask those same observers. The summit seems to have produced no breakthroughs on any of the divisive issues that plague EU relations, as Czech Radio’s correspondent in Khabarovsk Lenka Kabrhelová confirmed to me earlier by telephone.

“No, I’m afraid there were no breakthroughs. On the contrary the summit just highlighted the differences in current relations between Russia and the European Union. There was no significant progress in any of the problem areas; for example leaders of the EU and Russia failed to heal deep rifts on energy supplies, trade and Georgia for example, so all these questions remain for the future.”

And that’s despite the presence of Václav Klaus, a fluent Russian speaker who’s far less critical of Russia than many of his European colleagues.

“Yes, that’s right. From the beginning it was viewed as slightly problematic, that a very eurosceptic person would represent the EU delegation here in Khabarovsk. But to be honest, in the end it was also appreciated by European leaders and of course the Russians were quite happy; the Russian ambassador in Brussels made several remarks that the Russians welcomed the Czech president here. The EU’s External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner praised Mr Klaus for what she called his professionalism, so in the end of the day Mr Klaus was really appreciated.”

Jose Manuel Barroso, Dmitry Medvedev, Václav Klaus, Javier Solana (left to right), photo: CTK

But that professionalism and his fluent Russian really didn’t create any headway on those divisive issues.

“That’s absolutely correct, and overall it can be said that the summit hasn’t healed any of the problems in ties between the two blocs.”

Indeed Russia’s president Dmitry Medvedev later warned the European Union not to turn its proposed “Eastern Partnership” with former Soviet countries against Moscow. That project was heavily promoted by the Czech Presidency and launched recently in Prague.

The former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg was asked by iDnes online newspaper what he thought about Russia’s opinion of the countries that used to be in its sphere of influence, and he replied as follows – “a dog’s opinion of a sausage never changes – the decisive factor is whether he can reach that sausage or not.”