Interestingly, a follow-up meeting between Medvedev and Merkel in the German Meseberg Castle produced a bilateral commitment for an EU-Russia political and security committee with the participation of the EU high representative for foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, and the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Previously such matters have been handled at the ambassadorial level.
Of course, this development does not please everyone. The eastern EU member states are not thrilled by the prospect of weakening Western influence in the neighborhood shared by the EU and Russia – be the weakening real or imagined. On that note, it would seem that Georgia once and for all is categorized as a Russian area of interest (if indeed anything else previously was the case). Ashton’s proposal to abolish the EU special representative for the South Caucasus and Moldova would seem to reflect a downgrading of Georgia by the EU. The move has certainly not gone down well in Tbilisi, regardless that Ashton insists the maneuver merely is a question of bureaucratic reshuffling. Some say this development is proof of the EU’s impotency: When push comes to shove, the EU realizes it has little power with which to sway Russia in its own back yard.
Of course, the Ukraine voted to drop its NATO-membership bid last week would also seem to mark the demarcation line of the EU. In spite of non-participation in NATO not disqualifying a state from joining the EU, it has been pointed out that NATO and the EU go hand-in-hand when it comes to the former Eastern Bloc countries.
So what did the EU gain from all this? Besides the fact that it is nice to get along with your neighbor, and that the EU tends to consider dialogue to be a goal in itself. It is tempting to factor in the development in EU-Russian relations when trying to understand Russia’s support for the fourth round of UN sanctions. This past March, it did not seem certain that the Russians would go as far as has proven to be the case. Although Russia and the EU/US still are not in complete agreement on Iran, (e.g. Lavrov warned the EU and US against adopting additional one sided sanctions), it does not seem entirely far-fetched to suggest that the EU at least played some part in Russia’s change of heart. As for a Russia more dedicated to democratic principles, the EU has not made much headway, nor does such a development seem likely in the near future.