E. Ukraine war off the agenda at EU summit
More funds for bloc: Swiss
BRUSSELS, Nov 23, (Agencies): The EU’s bid to deepen ties with six former Soviet states enters its latest round in Brussels on Friday with anxiety about Russian influence running higher than ever in the bloc.
But with Russia and the war in eastern Ukraine off the official agenda, the Eastern Partnership summit looks likely to be more of a stock-taking exercise than a substantive statement of intent.
The EU says Friday’s set-piece with Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus will focus on 20 “deliverables” — plans to tackle corruption, improve the rule of law and modernise their economies.
The war rumbling on in eastern Ukraine between government forces and Russianbacked separatists gets no mention in a joint declaration to be made at the summit, according to a draft seen by AFP.
The statement limits itself to a bland call for “renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region” — a sharp contrast with the strong language on Ukraine after the last summit in 2015, which criticised Russia’s annexation of Crimea outright.
An EU official insisted the bloc was still “deeply engaged” in efforts to resolve conflicts in the former Soviet states but said the summit was not the right place to pursue them.
“An Eastern Partnership summit is not an instrument of conflict resolution, it is an instrument to discuss how we can develop and deepen our partnership,” the official said.
The conflict in Ukraine, which has killed more than 10,000 people, began after Russia invaded Crimea in the wake of pro-Kremlin president Viktor Yanukovych’s ousting, following his refusal to sign an association accord with the EU.
Ukraine has been pushing for a clear pledge from the 28-member bloc that one day it will be allowed to join, with President Petro Poroshenko warning that closing the door to membership would validate the Kremlin’s claims to “special interests” in the region.
Yanukovych
Ultimately
“What Ukraine ultimately wants is a simple message: ‘Once you’re ready — you’re in’,” Kostiantyn Yelisieiev, a senior aide to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, wrote in an editorial for the EU Observer news site last week.
Moldova’s pro-European Prime Minister Pavel Filip also urged the EU to send a strong political signal to help combat what he called “very aggressive” propaganda from Moscow.
“It’s a courtship process — the more positive messaging, the more we date, the more our society is resilient to messaging from Moscow,” he told reporters in Brussels.
“Never underestimate the fact that people in Moscow are using Moldova’s relationship with the EU and the quality of the relationship with the EU to send their messaging across.”
But there is little appetite in the EU for eastward expansion, particularly after Dutch voters rejected the first attempt at an association accord with Ukraine in an April 2016 referendum.
Meanwhile, Switzerland and the European Union, its main trading partner, made headway on Thursday on clinching a new treaty meant to cement ties, and Bern pledged fresh contributions to EU coffers.
The head of the EU Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and Swiss President Doris Leuthard gave an upbeat assessment of ties, which are on the mend after the Swiss parliament last year skirted voters’ calls for curbing immigration from the bloc.
“Things are going in the right direction,” Juncker told a news conference after meetings in the Swiss capital.
Shaky prospects for progress in the talks had prompted last-minute consultations on Monday to check whether the visit would even take place, a diplomat involved said.
But Leuthard said Switzerland was on track to contribute another 1.3 billion Swiss francs ($1.33 billion) in “cohesion payments” to the EU budget over 10 years as a sign of solidarity. Legislation would go to parliament next year.
The two sides did not achieve a breakthrough on a “framework” treaty Brussels wants to replace more than 100 bilateral accords now governing relations. This would ensure Switzerland adopts relevant EU laws in return for enhanced access to the bloc’s single market, crucial for Swiss exports.
Such a pact is anathema to the anti-EU Swiss People’s Party (SVP), the biggest in parliament. Many conservative politicians as well worry that any deal giving EU judges a role in settling disputes plays into the SVP’s hands before 2019 elections.
They hope Britain’s divorce talks with Brussels may open new avenues for Swiss-EU ties.
Impose
While Britain seems set to leave the single market and to impose controls on immigration, Switzerland is keen to ensure EU citizens can continue to live and work here — the price for its enhanced access to the EU market.
Juncker said he was taking pains to ensure the Brexit issue and Swiss talks remained separate.
Leuthard said the foreign judges issue remained a tricky one but added: “We found some flexibility here and will go into this in more depth in the months ahead.” She did not elaborate.
Bilateral ties suffered when Swiss voters in 2014 demanded quotas on EU immigration, but thawed after parliament last year adopted instead a system giving people registered as unemployed in Switzerland first crack at open jobs.
Agreements on mutual recognition of industrial standards and combining carbon trading systems followed, and Brussels is expected soon to recognise Swiss financial rules as sufficient.
A new treaty could pave the way for heightened Swiss access to EU power markets, cutting costs and ensuring supplies in emergencies. It could also help open the EU market for financial services for Swissbased banks and insurers.
The EU has made clear the treaty is a precondition for such deals, which in theory could make a pact more attractive to Swiss voters in an inevitable referendum. Without accompanying perks, the treaty is “a sitting duck”, one EU diplomat said.
While a treaty is also a stated aim of the Swiss government, mainstream conservatives are wary of the “foreign judges” angle.
They worry this hands the SVP a stick with which to beat them.