Rusland lijkt bereid tot akkoord over uitbreiding EU (en)

After months of negotiations, Russia may now be ready to extend a bilateral deal to cover the ten new member states joining the EU on 1 May.

Yesterday (30 March) Russia's economic development minister German Gref said 22 April could see his country legally recognise the EU's enlargement.

According to Pravda, Mr Gref told a Russian cabinet meeting that a deal was now close.

"We hope before 22 April - when a EU delegation comes to Russia to meet with the president and the prime minister - to settle all the trade-economic questions so as to ink the corresponding statement", he said.

More than just trade

Russia had earlier presented the European Union with a list of issues it would like to be dealt with before they agreed to sign up to the Political Cooperation Agreement (PCA). On Friday, it emerged that many of them had now been dealt with.

The PCA sets out the legal framework for relations between the EU and Russia, including trade cooperation.

There had been fears that Russia would not extend the document to cover the 10 new EU member states meaning that after 1 May, EU member states would be subject to different tariff levels and export controls.

However, with many of the EU's new members formerly under the Soviet yoke, the extension of the agreement has taken on a meaning far beyond its significance in trade terms.

Although a formal extension of the agreement will not now be possible before 1 May, an interim political accord is likely to enter into force.