Our Major Events of the Year: The resumption of the new EU-Russian Cooperation Pact

Author: Inga Friedelhaus Section: Major Events of the Month

Issue: December 2008, Vol.3, No. 11

Tags: EU

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Diplomatic Victory  

Held hostage over 18 months by the Baltic States and Poland over their traditional antagonistic ‘russophobic policies’ in place since the demise of the Soviet Union, and then suspended by Brussels in what is now seen as its ‘bizarre reaction’ to the Georgia crisis, the new Cooperation Pact, which is to replace the outdated agreement regulating the relationships between Russia and EU, got a second breath of life at the EU-Russia Summit in France in November. Indeed, the resumption of these talks without preliminary conditions by the EU is a huge diplomatic victory for Moscow.