EURussiaCentreEU-Russia Centre

Доклад о совместном семинаре “Вовлечение гражданского общества в отношения ЕС-Россия”, 14-15 октября 2009

On 14-15th October the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) together Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation (CCRF) organised a joint workshop, “Involving Civil Society in the EU-Russia Relations”. The first workshop took place in Moscow and Olena Prystayko, research fellow at the EU-Russia Centre spoke in one of the sessions.

The overall objective of the workshop was to foster an exchange of information and experiences in order to have better understanding of the political, economic and social situations in the EU and Russia. In addition, both institutions are seeking to work closer together in order to monitor jointly the negotiation of the new EU-Russia agreement and to ensure that the positions of civil society organisations are taken into account throughout these negotiations and in future relations.

Around 50 participants took part in the workshop: members of the EESC and CCRF, representatives of the European Commission and the European Parliament, representatives of the Permanent Mission the Russian Federation to the EU and experts from a number of institutions and organisations.

The Workshop was opened by Mario Sepi, President of the EESC and Evgeniy Velikhov, President of the CCRF, who both spoke about the importance of incorporating civil society structures from both sides into official EU-Russia relations. In his opening remarks, Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the EC, said that he was pleased to participate in this event which was focused on consultations regarding civil society. He drew special attention to Russia’s steps in tackling the financial crisis. According to Mr Chizhov, the future lay in transparent politics, based, among other things, on expert independent opinion. Newly appointed Chair of the European Parliament Delegation to the EU-Russia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, Knut Fleckenstein noted that it was crucial to improve the quality of the relationship between Russia and the EU during the current negotiations on the new agreement.

Michael Webb, Deputy Head of Unit Russia and Northern Dimension (DG RELEX, European Commission) and Alexander Krestiyanov, Deputy Head of the Mission, Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the EU were key speakers in the first session. They both spoke about the process of negotiation of the new agreement and the results so far. Mr Webb reported steady progress on understanding between the parties, though noted that much still was to be done. He especially noted that any extension of the negotiations would not lead to any legal vacuum in the relationship, as it had been agreed that the existing PCA would remain in force until the new agreement came into force. He outlined main points of the EU’s negotiating position and noted that most work needed to be done in the areas of trade and economic relations, energy (despite Russia’s withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty), horizontal issues and adherence to international commitments in the sphere of human rights. The EU, according to Mr Webb was open for cooperation for the civil society. He ended saying that the agreement would not be reached in the near future. Mr Krestiyanov, outlined the Russian position in the negotiations and listed some problematic issues. Some of these were simple, such as translation problems, but also deep-rooted misunderstandings. In the energy sphere, Russia questioned EU’s reciprocity. Mr Krestiyanov echoed Mr Webb saying that the biggest problems lay in the trade and economic area. After the formation of the custom union with Belarus and Kazakhstan on 1st January 2010 Russia will not be able to hold negotiations with the EU on the creation of the Free Trade Area any longer. Therefore, it was crucial to find a new appropriate form of negotiations. The EU and Russia should expect lengthy negotiations in the months ahead.

The second part of the first session was devoted to the role of the civil society in the new EU-Russia agreement. Ivan Voleš, President of the EESC Eastern Neighbours Contact Group and member of the Employers Group, EESC outlined the EESC position regarding the options to integrate civil society into official EU-Russia relations, like involvement into the negotiation process, elaborating joint positions on important issues in the negotiations and the future creation of a joint consultative body within the institutional structure of the EU-Russia official dialogue. Vyacheslav Nikonov, Chairman of the Inter-Commission Working Group on International Affairs, CCRF stated that the current PCA did not contain any reference to the civil society. He outlined the main principles of civil society which could be included in the new agreement. They included commitment to democracy (but with the understanding that there is no ideal democracy), support of a civil society, legislation on the free development of NGOs etc. He echoed Mr Voleš’s idea of the creation of a joint consultative body, based on the EESC and CCRF. Mr Nikonov concluded that civil society ties between the parties should be enforced even without the current negotiation process. Olena Prystayko, Research fellow, EU-Russia Centre spoke of the importance of including independent NGOs and think-tanks in the EU-Russia dialogue. She noted that the EU and Russia had not yet agreed their positions regarding the inclusion of civil society structures in the negotiation process, and their future role in EU-Russia official dialogue. Ms Prystayko outlined possible options for including provisions on civil society into the new agreement and the grounds for it. She supported the idea of the creation of a joint civil society body which could be integrated into the institutional structure of EU-Russia official dialogue. The EU-Russia Centre provided the organisers of the workshop with a briefing document, “What Role for Civil Society in the Sew EU-Russia Agreement?”.

The second day of the workshop was devoted to the social consequences of the economic crisis.

The workshop programme can be found at the EESC’s website:
www.eesc.europa.eu/sections/rex/europe/areaactivities/newneighbours/docs/2009-10-14-CCRF/programme-en.doc