Medvedev in Paris. Steven Erlanger reports:
Mr. Medvedev called the deal (on the French warship Mistral) “a symbol of trust between our two countries” and pressed for “Russia and France to be partners on European security.” (…) Mr. Sarkozy said that Russia was “a partner,” no longer an enemy, and that it was “time to turn the page” on the cold war. “How are we to say to Russian leaders — ‘We need you for peace, like on Iran,’ but then say: ‘We don’t trust you?’ That would be totally inconsistent,” Mr. Sarkozy said.
The two men also praised an important deal signed on Monday between the main French natural gas company, GDF Suez, and the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom. GDF Suez agreed to acquire a 9 percent stake in the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, intended to send Russian gas directly to Western Europe while avoiding Poland and Ukraine. In return, Gazprom will supply GDF Suez with up to an additional 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually starting in 2015.
Yanukovich in Brussels. The NY Times reports:
Visiting Brussels before Moscow on his first foreign trip, the new president of Ukraine, Viktor F. Yanukovich, on Monday promised closer relations with the European Union and reform of his country’s strategically important gas sector. (…) “For Ukraine, European integration is a key priority of our foreign policy,” said Mr. Yanukovich (…)
Mr. Yanukovich won from the European Union a target date in 12 months for completing negotiations on a free-trade deal but no promise that Ukraine — a country of around 46 million people which borders the E.U. — would be able to join the bloc. Mr. Yanukovich, who campaigned against Ukraine’s membership in NATO, said Kiev would continue partnership programs with the alliance. “As to the future, it’s an issue to negotiate, to discuss,” he added, “but the status of Ukraine is not going to change.” (…)
While the E.U. has been cautious about offering Ukraine any path to membership in the bloc, it is eager to foster political stability on its borders, and anxious that the Ukraine should become a reliable energy partner. Faith in Ukraine as a dependable transit country has been shaken by several disruptions to energy supplies brought about by price disputes between Kiev and Moscow. “We need urgent progress on modernization and restructuring of the gas sector,” said José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, who wants more transparency and market mechanisms in the Ukrainian gas sector. (…) If Ukraine adopts a new gas law in line with E.U. regulations, Kiev could sign the Energy Community Treaty and therefore encourage foreign direct investment. Mr. Yanukovich said he was “ready to adopt a law on the internal gas market.”
“Yanukovich is somebody we can work with,” said one E.U. official not authorized to speak publicly about Monday’s meetings. “It was a very strong political signal to come to Brussels before going to Moscow, and it was a very positive first meeting.”
The E.U. is pressing Ukraine to restart discussions with the International Monetary Fund, which last year suspended a loan program to Kiev. Officials see this as a precursor to an improved climate for investment.
Mr. Yanukovich said the two sides had also discussed visa-free travel for Ukrainians to the European Union. In other meetings, he pressed for cooperation on transport links for the Euro 2012 soccer championship that will be held in Ukraine and Poland, officials said.
Blaming Ashton. The Telegraph says that “rather than facing outwards, Brussels is gloomily gazing inwards and increasingly blaming Lady Ashton for the EU’s marginalisation on the global stage”:
“We have fought tooth and nail for nine years to get the Lisbon Treaty, or some form of EU Constitution. Can this really be what it is about?” said a French official.
In the last seven days simmering unease and unrest at Lady Ashton’s performance as EU High Representative for foreign affairs has erupted into the open. (…) “She has become the scapegoat for other people’s failing or inadequacies, whether it is her fault or not and that is very dangerous development for her future,” admitted a sympathetic official. “Some of these people should show a little more collective responsibility.” (…)
Diplomats and officials now openly admit that the Lisbon Treaty, billed as equipping Europe to be a united global power bestriding the world stage, has failed as the EU turns in on itself at a moment when it faces real existential political challenges. “We cannot blame battles between political pygmies for our problems. They are symptoms not causes of the EU’s decline or even decay,” said a depressed Europe minister last Monday.
Post-Lisbon, a proliferation of EU presidents. On Esharp, Geoff Meade writes about the increasing number of “presidents” in the EU institutions:
The Lisbon (Portugal) Treaty creates an all-powerful “President of the European Council” (POEC). This is additional to the existing roles of “President of the European Commission”(POCO) and “President of the European Parliament” (POPE). There is also a “rotating” President-in-Office of the European Council (PORC). (…) There is also a “President of the Committee of the Regions” (POCE) and a “President of the Economic and Social Committee” (PESC), two EU institutions operating quietly in the background. These two Committees (not real committees as they are not subordinate parts of a bigger entity) are nothing to do with the 22 committees of the European Parliament, which are subordinate but nevertheless have their own “presidents”. (…) There is also a “president” for each of the Parliament’s political groups, from which the membership of its committees is drawn. The Parliament has a “Conference of Presidents”, presided over by POPE. At any one time, therefore, about 30 members of the Parliament can lay claim to the title of “president”.
Low hopes for the EU’s new diplomatic service. The Economist’s Charlemagne columnist — David Rennie — has a piece on Esharp about the EU’s new diplomatic service, the European External Action Service (EEAS or EAS). The EAS, he says, “will turn out to be a disappointment”:
For most European countries, the idea of EU embassies taking over their minimal interests around the rest of the globe sounds both cheaper and more politically rewarding than going it alone. In contrast, a minority of EU countries have ambitions to be something like great powers: either globally, like France and Britain, or regionally, like Spain in Latin America. Finally, there are important countries with lucrative foreign interests to defend, even if they do not have strategic visions to promote: think of Germany’s ties to Russia, or Italy’s snuggling up to any number of energy-rich despots. All these groups – the tiddlers, would-be global players and cynics – will undermine the EAS. As soon as the stakes rise high enough, someone will always see an interest in breaking ranks. (…)
In a Union of 27 nations, there can be no secrets (so national diplomatic services will not share their best intelligence with the EAS). (…)
What, then, will be left? The big fear among national diplomats is that the EAS will end up pursuing programme-based external relations, just like the European Commission has for years. Project management is fine as far as it goes, but it only functions in a nice, post-modern world where legitimate interlocutors sit across the table, ready to sign partnership agreements and pledge to spend EU money in ways that can be audited. Alas, the world is still home to lots of nasty powers, who cannot be trusted and may need lying to. If European diplomacy cannot pull that off, will it be diplomacy at all?
Who skipped the EU-US summit? The US ambassador to the EU, William E. Kennard, in an interview with the EU Observer “laid part of the responsibility for the summit debacle on Spain”:
“We had never committed to a summit and we had never told the Spanish government that we were coming to Madrid in May. I think there may have been an assumption that we were,” he said.
Read today on Global Europe: Moscow’s strategic ambition. Energy update: Green light for Nord Stream pipeline. By Roderick Kefferputz, a Brussels-based expert on Eurasian energy and foreign affairs.
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