Portugal wil spanningen met Rusland niet vergroten (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - With Europe's political agenda now in the hands of Portugal until the end of the year, Lisbon has promised not to aggravate tensions with Russia, after several months of deteriorating relations between Brussels and Moscow.

Jose Socrates, Portugal's telegenic leader, indicated he would take a softer line on relations with Moscow which he considers "very serious indeed."

"Any relations based on moral judgements lead to confrontations," he said at his residence on Saturday (30 June).

"We must not emphasise the distance between us but [instead] what brings us together," stated the 49-year old centrist politician, who recently stayed in the Kremlin, a privilege normally reserved for heads of state.

Embarking on a long discourse about Russia - prompted by questions about the faltering ties between Brussels and Moscow - the prime minister, an open and informal politician in the style of former UK leader Tony Blair, revealed an affection for authors Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

He said the fame in Europe of the two Russian authors and other writers from the vast country implied a closeness between the two cultures.

Questioned by a Lithuanian journalist as to whether soft tactics would work and whether he would not rather take a harder line to get results, Mr Socrates rejected a tougher stance.

"I don't agree. International relations don't work like that. Push the Russians! It is irresponsible. I am not a guy who will contribute to increasing tensions, I want to lower tensions."

The apparent new approach was confirmed by Portuguese ambassador to Russia, Manuel Curto. The Moscow Times reported him on Wednesday as saying "we will not lecture Russia."

Progress?

The stance contrasts with Germany's somewhat critical stance when it had the agenda-setting EU presidency in the first half of the year.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, herself from the former East Germany, notably clashed with president Vladimir Putin over demonstrators at an EU-Russia summit in May.

According to Katinka Barysch from the London-based Centre for European Reform, Ms Merkel "struck just about the right tone" pulling Russia up on certain points of democratic principle but also "having the guts to walk away from the [May] Samara summit without any results."

This probably made the Kremlin respect her more, says Ms Barysch.

She believes that neither the Portuguese presidency nor the Slovenian presidency in the first half of 2008 will be able to break the impasse in Brussels-Moscow relations, particularly as Germany was not able to "pull it off with all its diplomatic weight."

In addition, both Lisbon and Ljubljana are going to want to concentrate on what is "their comparative advantage" - a focus on southern Europe and the Balkans respectively.

EU-Russia relations, anyway fraught because of Moscow's energy hold over the bloc, took a further nosedive last year when Poland blocked a new EU-Russia cooperation agreement because of a Moscow's ban on Polish meat imports.

The current agreement underpinning relations runs out at the end of this year.

On top of this, Lithuania has objected at EU level to Russia's blockade on oil imports to the country via the Druzhba pipeline.

Meanwhile ,most recently, Russia has strongly criticised US plans to put missile defence shields in Poland and the Czech Republic, at one stage ratcheting up the rhetoric to Cold War levels.

Relations are set to be showcased next at an EU-Russia summit in Lisbon on 26 October.