EU wants Russian energy but rejects Moscow integration efforts in Eurasia.

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It looks like the Europeans have been seriously offended with Moscow’s assistance to Ukraine, which had frozen the signing of the agreement on the associated membership in the EU and had made a choice in favour of developing relations with its Eastern neighbor. The upcoming 32th Russia-EU summit in Brussels on January 28 will be held in a truncated format and without a traditional dinner. Diplomats explain this by the need to concentrate on the most important things and as soon as possible.

Not two days, but only two hours are allocated now for the partners to discuss the key issues of interactions between Russia and the European Union. Moscow and Brussels have agreed that consideration of the details of numerous joint projects could wait, and they needed to focus on the issues of strategic partnership.

The matter will, of course, concern the economy and more specifically – energy, trade, international obligations and neighborly policy. It is unlikely that the President of Russia and his European colleagues will be able to avoid a conversation about the situation in Ukraine in the light of the last months’ events. The matter is that the European Union categorically rejects Moscow’s integration efforts in the Eurasian region, expert of the Institute of Europe Vladislav Belov says.

"We are talking about the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and the creation in 2015 of the Eurasian Economic Union. In the framework of the still frozen new basic agreement between Russia and the EU, Brussels does not agree with such development of events, assuring Moscow that the Eurasian vector contradicts the interests of the European Union and is beyond the scope of bilateral relations. The Russian side, in its turn, insists that the integration processes on the post-Soviet space serve the interests of both sides."

Most of the current contradictions between partners are derived from this fundamental disagreement. Apparently, it is not by accident that after the defeat of the "EuroMaidan’s" supporters in Ukraine and abroad, who were by all means trying to drag this country into a "European Paradise" contrary to elementary logic and economic interests of the Ukrainians, the dialogue on a visa-free regime between Russia and the EU is stalled once again. Here is what political analyst Alexei Kuznetsov told our source  on this matter.

"We see the reluctance of the EU to move forward in this direction for political reasons.

And this issue is fundamental, it opens the way to establishing common space between Russia and the EU, which was announced many years ago. Under the current barrier in the form of the visa regime it is difficult to expect further development of humanitarian contacts, intensive scientific research, and real ties of small and medium business. The EU will be pulling our leg once again."

The issues related to attempts of discriminating Russian companies in the framework of the Third Energy Package are not finally settled yet. Not everything is running smoothly between Russia and the EU after the former’s recent entry into the WTO. Thus, European countries go on with their protectionist policies in relation to their own producers and oppose similar measures on the part of Moscow. The partners haven’t also come to mutual agreement on the issue connected with the European Commission’s demand to revise the legal base of the South Stream gas pipeline construction.

The European officials believe that Russia’s bilateral agreements with Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia violate the EU law. At the meantime they forget that intergovernmental agreements on the international law prevail over all European legislation. In the present political context, it seems to be unduly even to recall the creation of the missile defence system in Europe. In this regard, the progress is not even within hailing distance.

However, it is the real economy that stands behind these not very optimistic trends. And things are not so bad in this field. The trade turnover between Russia and the EU is estimated in hundreds of billions of dollars and has no objective reasons for sharp fluctuations, especially to the negative side. Tens of millions of inhabitants of the Old World have a daily need in Russian energy resources, and this fact cannot be easily filed away in storage. So, neither Moscow nor Brussels will benefit from acting to the detriment of the established mutually beneficial balance and far-reaching joint plans for the sake of the current political differences, albeit of a fundamental nature.