EU warms to Russian pan-European security pact idea[fr][de] 

The talks on a new partnership agreement, frozen after the Russian-Georgian conflict, will resume on 2 December, Christiane Hohmann, spokesperson for EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner, told AFP. 

"This is an agreement of strategic importance. We feel that it is strategic for the European Union and I think Russia thinks likewise," said Commission President José Manuel Barroso. 

The decision to resume talks was widely expected after the bloc's foreign ministers had reached a general agreement to do so on 10 November, despite opposition from countries such as Poland and Lithuania. 

A new pan-European security pact 

These countries also reacted frostily to the support of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country currently hold the EU Presidency, for Russia's idea of a pan-European security accord, which its President Dmitry Medvedev had floated last month. 

Sarkozy suggested a that summit, possibly under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and including the US and Russia, be held in mid-2009 to "lay down the foundation for what could be the future of European security". 

Medvedev said Russia envisaged a pan-European security treaty that could be joined by all nations and groupings, including NATO, and "a list of rules for the future". 

Missile defence: Another dividing line? 

Such a pact could also deal with the hotly-debated issue of US plans to set up anti-missile sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, to which Russia is strongly opposed. 

Medvedev recently further fired the debate by announcing that he may consider stationing missiles in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad if the US proceeds with is plans. US President-elect Barack Obama has signalled that he would not follow in the footsteps of his predecessor regarding missile defence. 

Sarkozy called on Washington and Moscow to put on hold their deployment plans at least until the signature of a new security pact. He said the US system would "bring nothing to security" and "complicates things". 

The comments triggered a sharp response from Poland and the Czech Republic, which said he had no mandate to make such remarks. "The question of the anti-missile shield is governed by an agreement between Poland and the United States. It is above all an American project," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told reporters. 

"I don't think that third countries, even such good friends as France, can have a particular right to express themselves on this issue." 

Later on Saturday, Sarkozy backed down, saying the US system could "ultimately [combat] a missile threat coming from elsewhere, for example, Iran". He was speaking after a financial summit of world leaders in Washington. 

"Each country has the right to decide whether or not to install an anti-missile shield," Sarkozy said, citing Poland and the Czech Republic. 

Commission President Barroso stressed that talk of missiles must not dominate the EU-Russia agenda. "The future must go down the economic path rather than the missile path. We must have an exchange of dialogue instead of a show of force," he said.