Mogelijk einde aan Pools veto tegen EU-Ruslandverdrag (en)
Poland is ready to lift its veto on a new EU-Russia political agreement, the country's prime minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday.
Warsaw vetoed the bilateral agreement in late 2006 in response to Russia's ban on Polish meat exports.
"I see no big problems in working out a negotiating mandate within the EU and Poland will certainly not be an obstacle to the lifting of the veto", Mr Tusk told Reuters in an interview.
If materialized, the move would be another sign of the improving relations between Warsaw and Moscow, since Mr Tusk took over the office of prime minister from Jaroslav Kaczynski, who earned himself a reputation of a trouble-maker on European issues.
The new Polish government has already offered Russia dialogue on two thorny issues - US plans to place missiles in Polish territory and a Baltic gas pipeline, which is to connect Russia with Germany, but bypass Poland.
Due to Warsaw's veto on the EU's "Strategic Partnership Treaty", the 27-nation bloc is currently stuck with an out-of-date bilateral treaty negotiated with Russia back in the 1990s and which expired last year.
"We don't want to multiply new conditions," Mr Tusk told Reuters, stressing the need to speak with one voice on Russia.
"We must treat Russia with no fear, no fascination and see it as a separate political entity which is not pushing for integration with the EU," he added.
When asked about the controversial natural gas pipeline negotiated by former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Mr Tusk said: "We have little say on whether the pipeline is built or not".
But he added: "To the Russians and Germans, who want to build the most expensive pipeline in history, we say they cannot count on our acceptance."