Duits voorzitterschap gaat Pools vetoprobleem overnemen van Finnen (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The German EU presidency is set to inherit the problem of Poland's veto on starting EU-Russia treaty talks, after the last EU ambassadors' meeting of 2006 ended Wednesday (20 December) with no agreement on the issue.

"Theoretically, the Finnish EU presidency could still send a new compromise text to Poland that would be acceptable and then the veto could be lifted by written procedure [instead of an ambassadors' meeting]," an EU diplomat explained. "But as there is no new compromise, this won't happen."

The Polish defiance comes on the same day Russia lifted a threat to ban all EU meat exports from 1 January 2007, but not to lift a year-long ban on Polish meat - the reason for the Polish veto - before another round of talks with the European Commission on 17 January.

The veto impasse leaves the EU stuck with an out-of-date bilateral treaty with Russia that was negotiated back in the 1990s and was set to expire in mid-2007, but with no possibility to start talks on a more ambitious "Strategic Partnership Treaty" (SPT) for the new energy-dominated era in EU-Russia relations.

Poland wants the EU to give it a written guarantee it will suspend SPT talks if Russia does not lift the Polish meat ban 50 or so days after the talks start, but most EU member sates, including Finland, say this type of veto mechanism would make SPT negotiations unworkable.

Meanwhile, some Polish diplomats are themselves frustrated with Warsaw's tough stance on the issue, saying that a good opportunity has been missed to show the EU that Poland is not a "troublemaker" by lifting the veto at the last EU summit on 15 December.

Germany has strong bilateral relations with Moscow and plans to make closer EU-Russia relations a top priority of its six month EU presidency.

But its relations with Poland are wobbly, with a nasty row on post-World War II borders in the air.