EU-Russia security committee pleads Weimar triangle
(B2) It is in the cool, under the trees of the Quai d'Orsay (charming place, cf. photo) that the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the French (B. Kouchner), German (K. Westerwelle) and Polish Weimar triangle (R. Sikorski) met on Wednesday. Triangle, I should say rectangle. Because there was a fourth thief at the table. And what a thief! : Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. " The partnership with Russia is a strategic objective of the EU, it is not at all, on the contrary, a factor of division.n” said Bernard Kouchner at the end of the meeting.
On the discussion menu
The issue of Kaliningrad and visas for Russians, Khighizstan — where the European Union with the OSCE is preparing decisions (1) —; and European security. Mention was thus made of the recent German proposal, made during the bilateral summit between the two countries, at the beginning of June, to create an EU-Russia committee responsible for settling major issues, particularly security. According to Medvedev, the other participants again agreed to this idea. In fact, it seems rather that there is an agreement for a forum of discussion allowing to regulate 'in a global way' the conflicts frozen at the margins of the EU: of Transnistria, like Nagorno Karabakh, or of Bosnia. Germans and Russians would thus be in favor of a reinforced European presence in Transnistria (2) — this self-proclaimed independent republic in the east of Moldova. " We have to propose together, with other members of the EU and other foreign ministers, those elements (for the global settlement) which must be taken up by the European Union clarified Bernard Kouchner.
An EU-Russia committee: a good idea?
Undeniably, yes. Because it is more than urgent that Europeans and Russians agree, directly, without intermediary, and without the presence of third parties, on certain fundamental questions affecting their security. But an oh so perverse idea too. There is no doubt that the creation of this committee also aims (on the Russian side) on the one hand to diminish the importance of the NATO-Russia committee which suffered during the war in Georgia. Russia has always pursued the idea of a Europe autonomous from the American continent, closer to Moscow than to Washington. And all his efforts go in this direction. For Russia, it is also a question of getting a foothold in the EU in some way, of being able to influence its decisions. At the OSCE or the UN where decisions are made by consensus, it can block certain decisions. Not to the EU... except through loyal allies (Italy and Germany in the lead). If the EU decides to set up such a committee or a similar idea, it will have to be careful not to fall into this trap.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
