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.
