Participation of Janis A. Emmanouilidis, Stavros Costopoulos Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, in a conference organized by the local office of the European Centre on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on November 19, 2007 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The event covered four issues: the current situation in Georgia, the relationship between Russia and the European Union, the perspectives for the Western Balkans and especially the future status of Kosovo, and the potentials for synergy in the Black Sea region.

Concerning EU-Russian relations in more general terms most participants agreed that the EU and its member states should not demonize its powerful Eastern neighbour but rather treat it as it stands.

At the conference Mark Leonard and Nicu Popescu from the ECFR presented their report “A Power Audit of EU-Russia Relations” in which the authors identify five distinct policy groups vis-à-vis Moscow:

(1) Trojan Horses: This group includes Greece and Cyprus, whose views – according to the authors – have proved closest to Russia’s in intra-EU discussions.

(2) Strategic Partners: This groups includes the member states with the most influence on EU policy: Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

(3) Friendly Pragmatists: According to the authors the members of this largest group – including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Luxembourg, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Portugal – “rarely try to set the EU agenda, preferring to follow the mainstream policy which is largely shaped by big member states such as Germany and France.”

(4) Frosty Pragmatists: This group includes countries who tend to be pragmatic and oriented towards business interests and at the same time “consistently raise concerns about democracy and human rights, and are willing to challenge Russia when it violates their commercial interests as well as diplomatic norms“ (Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Latvia, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom).

(5) New Cold-Warriors: This group includes Lithuania and Poland, which „have actively sought to shape a more critical EU line towards Russia, using means like critical non-papers, diplomatic footwork and even vetoing negotiations about a new EU agreement with Russia”.

Leonard and Popescu want the European Union to be more united vis-à–vis Russia and advise the EU and their member states to follow a “new paradigm” in their relationship with Moscow: “While the long-term goal should be to have a liberal democratic Russia as a neighbour, a more realistic mid-term goal would be to encourage Russia to respect the rule of law, which would allow it to become a reliable partner.“