Ten years ago, on November 14, 2008, the European Union announced the start of negotiations on a new, expanded partnership agreement with Russia during a summit in Nice, France. Following Russia’s invasion of Georgia and within days of its threats to target missiles at EU member-countries allied with the United States, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was being welcomed as a “strategic partner-in-waiting” of the EU.
Lithuania, however, attempted to redeem the integrity of EU policy, but it could only uphold its own.
The 1997 EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement had expired in 2007. The EU held a summit with Russia on June 26-27, 2008, in Khanti-Mansiisk, Russia, where the EU agreed to start negotiations on an upgraded agreement that Russia wanted to be one of strategic partnership.
At the time, the EU had kept silent about Russia’s military threats to Georgia, although the EU leaders had promised to raise that issue. Six weeks later, Russia invaded Georgia.
Russian forces were accused of building permanent bases in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, occupying additional areas beyond those held before the beginning of the conflict on August 7, and ethnically cleansing Georgian populations, barring access to monitors of the EU and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). In late October, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and France’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Bernard Kouchner spoke of Russia’s “overall compliance” with the armistice terms. The position was shared by Javier Solana, the EU’s high foreign policy representative, during his meeting with Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov in St. Petersburg.
Russia understood that its behavior in Georgia would have no repercussions on EU-Russia relations.
Initially, there was resistance among some EU members, including Britain, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Poland and the three Baltic states, but the Brits sided with the French, causing Lithuania to be the lone holdout after the resistance alliance collapsed.
President Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania warned, “Resuming the talks now [on partnership with Russia] would expose the EU’s weaknesses for all to see,” allowing Russia “once more to trample over European values.”
Lithuania’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Zygimantas Pavilionis cautioned the Germans and French that: “The French Presidency [of the EU] was making a serious, historic mistake. We are questioning the timing and we are questioning this U-turn in the EU’s position. Is it the right signal to send to Kyiv, to Moldova, even to the Baltic states today, that borders can be changed by military force? This is a way to legitimize occupation, and we are concerned about the powerful effects of this message to all neighboring countries and to Russia itself.”
However, the French line prevailed at the EU’s foreign affairs ministers’ meeting on November 10. Mr. Kouchner claimed that Russia’s conduct on the ground in Georgia was satisfactory enough to warrant the resumption of partnership negotiations with Russia.
Estonia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Umas Paet noted that the interpretation of Russia’s conduct in Georgia by Mr. Solana and External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner raised questions and could not be allowed to develop into a precedent within the EU.
The ministerial meeting ignored Georgian Prime Minister Grigol Mgaloblishvili’s appeal from Tbilisi: “Today to declare ‘mission accomplished’ and return to business as usual with Russia could encourage Russia to continue its aggressive actions against Georgia and Europe’s Eastern neighborhood.”
This year, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said he “will support an opening towards Russia as sanctions [against Russia, related to its invasion of Ukraine since 2014] are damaging to Italy’s economy.” This kind of rhetoric from Italy has grown louder with the rise of Lega Nord and the Five Star Movement – political parties funded in part by the Kremlin.
Source: “Lithuania refuses to acquiesce in EU negotiations with Russia,” by Vladimir Socor (Eurasia Daily Monitor), The Ukrainian Weekly, November 23, 2008.