Jean-Claude
Juncker’s Russia trip raises red flags
Commission
president plans to take part in Vladimir Putin’s Davos-style
conference.
By JACOPO BARIGAZZI
5/30/16, 5:31 AM CET
European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker faces growing resistance from the U.S.,
some European countries — and even among his own staff — to a
trip to Russia next month.
Their fear,
according to diplomatic sources, is that Juncker’s visit will
strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position right before
a crucial decision on renewing economic sanctions against Moscow.
Juncker plans to
attend a major international conference in St. Petersburg — an
annual gathering of politicians, business leaders and thinkers that
is often described as Putin’s version of the World Economic Forum
in Davos. The Commission president would be the first leader of an EU
institution to visit Russia since sanctions were imposed in March
2014 after the country’s incursions in Ukraine, including the
annexation of the Crimean peninsula.
“Meetings for the
sake of meetings as such do not bring added value to EU-Russia
relations” — Linas Linkevicius
“Meetings for the
sake of meetings as such do not bring added value to EU-Russia
relations,” Linas Linkevicius, the Lithuanian foreign minister,
told POLITICO. “The Kremlin uses meetings to create the impression
of business as usual, and usually reports this impression to their
own public.”
Juncker’s
spokesman confirmed Monday that the Commission president planned to
attend the event, the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum,
which takes place June 16 to 18. Margaritis Schinas told reporters
that Juncker would use the trip “to convey to the Russian
leadership as well as to a wider audience the EU’s prospective
regarding the current state of EU-Russia relations.”
Schinas did not say
whether Juncker would meet privately with Putin, but told reporters
“it would be evident that two leaders being there will have to meet
because they will be there, attending the same forum.”
Officials said
Juncker could still back out of the trip if Putin makes an
unexpectedly provocative move or if the situation worsens on the
ground in Ukraine. In the meantime, two EU diplomatic sources said
this week that some in the president’s office have been advising
him not to take part in the conference because of the sensitivity of
the sanctions issue. A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on
whether there was dissent in Juncker’s staff about the merits of
the trip.
Moscow calling
The EU is expected
to prolong the sanctions against Russia that come up for renewal in
July, even though some EU countries have wavered in their support for
the measures, saying they hurt Europe’s agricultural and industrial
sectors.
Though the
conference program is full of mainstream business leaders as well as
think-tankers and media figures, the only current speakers who even
approach the level of a major Western political figure are Hungary’s
foreign minister and Greece’s tourism minister. Former French
Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine is also on the list of speakers, as
is Europe’s former trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, now a
lobbyist.
A visit with Putin
is not strictly taboo for a major Western political figure.
U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry met with the Russian leader in March to talk about
Syria, and diplomatic relations between the EU member states and
Russia continue. Between September 2015 and February 2016, there were
19 visits by national delegations to Moscow, mainly at the
ministerial level. Germany’s Angela Merkel visited Moscow in May
2015. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault met Putin last month.
According to
diplomatic sources, several countries — including the U.K. and the
U.S. as well as some Baltic and Central European nations — have
privately expressed unease that Juncker’s participation in an event
clearly designed to burnish Putin’s credentials as a statesman
could only bolster the Russian position at a delicate moment in the
sanctions debate.
In recent days,
several top EU officials have signaled that the bloc will keep the
sanctions in place — saying there had been no significant movement
toward implementing the February 2015 Minsk II agreement, which
required a withdrawal of heavy weapons from the conflict zone, local
elections in eastern Ukraine, and full Ukrainian control over its
border with Russia throughout the conflict zone.
Even though some EU
countries, including France and Italy, have pushed for more
engagement with Moscow and even called for a lifting of sanctions,
European Council President Donald Tusk this week underlined the
bloc’s current inclination to prolong them.
Speaking to
reporters at the G7 summit Thursday in Japan, Tusk said “this
crisis can only be resolved in full compliance with international
law, especially the legal obligation to respect Ukraine’s
sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. I want to state
clearly that our stance vis-à-vis Russia, including economic
sanctions, will remain unchanged as long as the Minsk agreements are
not fully implemented.”
Juncker did not
directly address the sanctions issue in Japan, and his planned trip
to St. Petersburg is not being billed as any kind of EU endorsement
for Putin or his policies in Ukraine. The Commission’s spokesman
Schinas told reporters Monday that “we don’t see any
inconsistency with the decision of the president to attend” the
conference and the EU’s position on sanctions.
But some critics
argued that his mere presence there could be counterproductive. Even
if Juncker makes a strong public statement at the event on Russia’s
lack of respect for the agreement and for human rights, one diplomat
said, “what would count is the fact that he has gone, that he’s
there.”
As the EU has sought
to maintain a hard line with Moscow, in March it decided to try a
more carrot-and-stick approach, with foreign ministers agreeing to
start a “selective engagement” with Russia over issues such as
Syria, the Middle East and counter-terrorism.
Any engagement is
still highly contentious. When the bloc’s foreign policy chief,
Federica Mogherini, raised the possibility of going to Moscow in
March, diplomats said that EU foreign ministers were sharply divided
over whether to give her the mandate to make the trip. Mogherini,
Italy’s member on the European Commission, eventually decided not
to go. She may try again soon if the Juncker visit re-opens the door.
“Now if Juncker goes it’s likely that also Mogherini will
follow,” a diplomat said.
“We must make
efforts towards a practical relationship with Russia” —
Jean-Claude Juncker
In an interview with
the German newspaper Die Welt on May 19, Mogherini said the EU is on
track to renew the sanctions but also hinted at a broader review of
the policy coming soon. “In the second half of the year EU
governments should make a substantive political evaluation on the
degree of implementation of the Minsk Agreement, and on what the way
forward toward solving the conflict in Ukraine looks like,” she
said.
United on sanctions,
for now
European Council
officials said Tusk has no intention to go to Russia, but this does
not mean that he has a strong anti-Russian position.
Juncker himself in
October surprised many when he advocated closer ties with Moscow. “We
must make efforts towards a practical relationship with Russia,” he
said at an event in Passau, Germany. “It’s not sexy but that must
be the case, we can’t go on like this.”
Still, not even
Putin’s strongest allies in Europe, such as Hungary, are quite
ready to break ranks on the question of sanctions. “We don’t
respect the automatic role of the sanctions. We have to have a
political debate at the highest level possible,“ said Hungary’s
foreign affairs minister, Péter Szijjártó, in a press conference
Monday.
Szijjártó, who is
himself scheduled to speak at the Putin conference, added that “our
interest is the Minsk agreement to be fulfilled asap. Whatever is the
decision, we will not be breakers of EU unity.”
This story was
updated to include additional comment from the European Commission
spokesman.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário