EU struggles in Russian negotiations

VoidStarNull

This is one of the reasons why I voted Yes to Lisbon. Negotiations with Russia were already delayed becuase it took longer than expected for the 27 member states to agree on a common mandate. Now this:

Lisbon impasse dents EU-Russia hopes

Negotiations on a new pact between the European Union and Russia risk being complicated by the confusion surrounding the adoption of the Lisbon reform treaty, according to Moscow’s ambassador to the EU.

“I sincerely wish our EU partners find a way out of yet another impasse,” Vladi*mir Chizhov told the Financial Times. “Above all, we’re not gloating. It’s not entirely a sign of the EU’s strength, of course, but we’ll be close*ly following developments.”

BTE72

Not everone shares your feelings on a common mandate obviously. Europe's vision is too cloudy. It needs to be simplified or the suspicion will always remain amongst us. To retain your voice as a nation and not risk losing anything meant voting no. Europe should respect the decision of the election and democracy.

VoidStarNull

Sorry, I meant a common negotiating mandate for the discussions with Russia, not a mandate for the reorganization of the EU etc. The negotiating mandate was agreed earlier this year.

jmayo

What about the Baltic SEa pipeline, originally agreed by Putin/Schroeder for pipeline link between Russia and Germany via Baltic thus cutting out Poland, Ukraine etc.
So much for EU wide agreements with Russia, when push comes to shove larger countries will go direct to source to look after their own.

VoidStarNull

jmayo wrote: »

What about the Baltic SEa pipeline, originally agreed by Putin/Schroeder for pipeline link between Russia and Germany via Baltic thus cutting out Poland, Ukraine etc.
So much for EU wide agreements with Russia, when push comes to shove larger countries will go direct to source to look after their own.

It is precisely to avoid the recurrence of this type of scenario that the EU commission has pushed for an EU wide agreement.

marco_polo

jmayo wrote: »

What about the Baltic SEa pipeline, originally agreed by Putin/Schroeder for pipeline link between Russia and Germany via Baltic thus cutting out Poland, Ukraine etc.
So much for EU wide agreements with Russia, when push comes to shove larger countries will go direct to source to look after their own.

Wasn't that a bi-lateral agreement between two countries? And so outside the remit of the EU. Certainly it was selfish on the part of the Germans, but the blame hardly lays at the EUs door for that.

sink

jmayo wrote: »

What about the Baltic SEa pipeline, originally agreed by Putin/Schroeder for pipeline link between Russia and Germany via Baltic thus cutting out Poland, Ukraine etc.
So much for EU wide agreements with Russia, when push comes to shove larger countries will go direct to source to look after their own.

The Lisbon treaty would have given the EU joint competence over energy. At the moment the EU has no competence over energy so there was never any discussion of the pipeline. If the Lisbon treaty passed future pipelines would discussed at EU level and as it is a QMV area 15 countries could force Germany to change it's policy. There probably would not have been enough time to change the direction of this pipeline even if Lisbon passed.