The Baltic Challenge:
Relations with the EU and Russia?
Seminar
The aim of this seminar is
to discuss and rationalize
the position of Baltic states
vis-à-vis Russia in the EU
Three stages of EU-Russian relations
• 1994 – 2003
– Partnership agreement
– Four spaces
• 2004 – 2013
– Moscow-Berlin-Paris Axis
– Nord Stream
• 2014 - ……..
– Alternative integration
Litmus test
The Baltic Litmus Test
• 1994 – 2003
• 1994 – 2003
• 2004 – 2013
• 2004 – 2013
• 2014 - ……..
• 2014 - ……..
– Partnership agreement
– Four spaces
– Moscow-Berlin-Paris Axis
– Nord Stream
– Alternative integration
– Uneasy Neighborhood
– Minority and Transit
– Increasing Disregard
– Energy Blackmail
– Geopolitical animosity
Gazprom Prices
EP resolution on
State of EU-Russia relations
• ….The EU cannot envisage a return to ‘business as
usual’; calls for a critical re-assessment by the EU of
its relations with Russia, and for the drafting, as
promptly as possible, of a soft-power contingency
plan to counter the aggressive and divisive policies
conducted by Russia against the EU and its
partners…..
EP resolution
• State of
EU-Russia
relations
Hint – Two Opinions
•
‘Smart’ foreign policy that underlines Europe’s
relevance is particularly needed with regard to
Russia if we are to avoid the long-term
deterioration of relations with Moscow. While
remaining firm in its opposition to Russia’s
territorial expansion and destabilisation of
Ukraine, the EU has to devise creative policies to
turn the current negative-sum game on energy,
trade and economic into something much more
positive. The EU should keep in mind what a
former U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Jack
Matlock, has pointed to as one of the factors
contributing to the deteriorating relations of
Russia with the EU: two decades of often
haughty indifference to Russia’s interests and
sensitivities.
Read more at:
http://europesworld.org/2015/06/22/threesteps-for-mogherini-to-refurbish-eu-foreignpolicy/#.VYvTpUZrvk0
• A strategy that prevents Russia
from trying to turn neighbours into
satellites, by using all kinds of
means including military power,
must be built on two elements.
First, the EU must be ready to
make Russia pay a price for
violating its neighbours’
sovereignty and territorial
integrity. Second, it must
strengthen the capacity of Russia’s
post-Soviet neighbours to defend
their sovereignty and territorial
integrity.
Read more at:
http://carnegieeurope.eu/2015/02
/25/renaissance-of-west