Warsaw Steps Back

The end of the EU's Polish veto row seemed a step closer after French and German leaders gave political backing to a visibly happy Polish President Lech Kaczynski at a Weimar Triangle summit in Mettlach, Germany, on Tuesday.

Last month, Warsaw vetoed the launch of negotiations for a new overarching EU-Russia strategic partnership agreement at a summit with President Vladimir Putin, in protest of a year-old Russian ban on imports of meat from Poland.

That negotiating mandate has not been resolved, but the Poles have announced they will allow a meeting of the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council on energy, which they were also blocking, to take place on Friday after all, diplomats told Reuters news service.

Kaczynski: I feel solidarity

"We talked about the meat issue," Kaczynski told the EU Observer Web site. "I feel that we got a certain solidarity, a certain scope of solidarity, when it comes to all of the efforts to change the state of affairs."

He added that he hopes EU-Russia treaty talks "will start a short time, not a long time, from now."

The EU had hoped to launch talks with Russia earlier this year, for a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement to replace a 1997 deal that expires at the end of next year. The planned new partnership deal includes EU demands for better and secure access to Russia's vast oil and gas resources and Russian commitments to secure energy supplies into the 25-member bloc -- the biggest consumers of Russian oil.

Senior Polish official Andrzej Krawczyk said French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel promised to "mediate" between Poland and Russia on any food or energy problems in future, while taking into account Kaczynski's view that "Gazprom is not a normal company, but a tool of Russian national interests."

"I hope to see this [veto] dispute resolved as soon as possible," Chirac said, adding that Paris and Berlin signed a Poland-friendly joint declaration with Warsaw.

More sympathy for Poland

The statement said a "long-term partnership" with Russia must be "based on equal rights in trade and energy" and that the EU's joint energy policy must have a "spirit of solidarity" while promising to put "special attention" on EU-Ukraine relations next year.

Meanwhile, limited EU sympathy for Poland's stance on Russia is beginning to ebb.

"Poland has shown it is determined and has to be reckoned with," a European diplomat told the EU Observer. "But now it is time to show that it is also a good partner and can find a constructive solution to the problem."

Also at the talks, Merkel raised the issue of Russian non-cooperation with the British probe into the murder of ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko.

"Everything has to be done to clear up this case," she said. "Russia would do well to cooperate on this."