Top EU-Rusland: klimaat, WTO, gas en mensenrechten besproken (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Russia made a surprise pledge to cut back on CO2 emissions at an EU-Russia summit in Sweden on Wednesday (18 November).

Russian diplomats said the country is ready to cut emissions by 20 to 25 percent below 1990s levels by 2020, up from a previous commitment of 10 to 15 percent.

The move, coming two weeks before the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen climate, falls short of the EU target of 20 to 30 percent for developed countries. It also fails to clear up the issue of Russia's unused carbon credits, which could cause a crash on the carbon exchange market if Moscow opts to cash them in.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the CO2 decision. "We are currently negotiating among the world capitals," he said about the ongoing pre-Copenhagen talks. "But you cannot negotiate with nature. You cannot negotiate with physics."

Mr Barroso also re-iterated EU support for Russia to join the WTO, in order to increase confidence for Western investors and help remove protectionist obstacles to trade.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev declined to rule out that his country will try to join the free-trade bloc as a unit together with Belarus and Kazakhstan however - a move that, experts say, could delay its membership by years, as well as complicating talks on a new EU-Russia bilateral treaty.

"In my opinion, both ways are possible," Mr Medvedev said regarding whether Russia will join the WTO alone or in a group of three. "For us the main thing is speed. Whatever way is faster we will take it."

The Russian leader underlined that his country and the EU are interdependent partners in terms of energy sales, but did not promise that any fresh Russia-Ukraine gas dispute will not affect EU countries.

The post-summit press conference was also short on references to EU worries over human rights abuses in Russia or Russia's presence in South Ossetia and Abkhazia in the wake of last year's war between the eastern giant and Georgia.

The human rights situation is "an increasing cause for concern," Swedish premier Fredrik Reinfeldt said. Freedom for NGOs to flourish is "a yardstick of modern societies," Mr Barroso added.

For his part, Mr Medvedev brushed off the Georgia problem as "differences of opinion."

The Russian president remarked that the Stockholm meeting will be the last time the EU and Russia come together under the existing leadership format and wished the EU "every success" in its attempt to select a new president and foreign minister in Brussels on Thursday.

Sweden's Mr Reinfeldt remarked wryly that his role of co-ordinating the EU member states' views on the subject, carried out under the auspices of the Swedish EU presidency, has not been easy.

"I've now been talking a full four working days, and some nights, with my colleagues," he said. "I don't know if you have tried this, but try to get in touch with 26 heads of state and government in 24 hours, and - good luck."

"Tonight I have one left and I have achieved my full second round," Mr Reinfeldt added. "They are not of the same opinion, all of them."