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SUMMARY:Russia and EU External Relations: in from the cold or out into not
 hing? - D. A. Floudas\, Hughes Hall
DTSTART:20100310T130500Z
DTEND:20100310T135500Z
UID:TALK23659@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Angela Ward
DESCRIPTION:Gas stoppages\, neighbouring country invasions\, strange poiso
 nings\, trade disputes \n- the relationships of the EU with Russia remain 
 uneasy.\nThe seminar will examine the structure and contents in the legal 
 framework of the EU relations with Russia and attempt a few predictions of
  its possible future development.\n\n*ABSTRACT*\n\nEU-Russia relations hav
 e been experiencing several up and down periods over the last two decades.
  However\, they have never been at such a low ebb as they are today.  The 
 momentum was lost in 2007\, a good while before the Russia- Georgia milita
 ry conflict in August 2008 and the Russia- Ukraine gas dispute in January 
 2009. \nThe terms that could most eloquently characterize present day rela
 tions between the EU and Russia are a “quandary” and “helplessness
 ”. Talks on a new bilateral agreement go slowly\, since both sides pursu
 e different visions of what it should be about. If one looks at the actual
  priority agendas of Russia and the EU\, especially in the field of extern
 al relations\, one can conclude that both sides came to the point of givin
 g up on their relationship. \n\nThese bilateral relations remain contradic
 tory and difficult. Such accounts include legacies of the Cold War\, which
  saw distrust\, ambiguity over common strategic goals that continue to sur
 face in the contemporary period\, as well as asymmetry in levels of econom
 ic development.   In less than two decades the relationship between the EU
  and Russia has transformed from exclusively bilateral relations between s
 ome of the European Community’s members and the USSR\, to a partnership 
 between the EU and Russia. These actors now cooperate and establish new re
 alities that were inconceivable during the Cold War. Russia has been the s
 ubject of many fundamental policy documents\, policy implementation instru
 ments and internal discussions over the past ten years\, and the density a
 nd frequency of bilateral dialogue between Russia and the EU is remarkable
 . \n\nThe instruments of collaboration are just as numerous and wide-reach
 ing\, causing a degree of confusion.  Relations between the EU and Russia 
 are burdened with numerous problematic questions. These result from the po
 sition and ambitions of the two entities as significant powers\, the inter
 dependence between the two and the number and complexity of issues involve
 d.\n\nIn the long run a lasting strategic partnership with Russia would im
 ply that this country moves towards a model of democracy similar to that o
 f the EU. As indicated above\, this is not the way Russia is going. Given 
 the present situation\, where the elites of Russia and the European Union 
 have different values and views\, attempts to push forward specific elemen
 ts of integration could probably only serve to aggravate a negative atmosp
 here\, without excluding even a military altercation at some point within 
 the next two decades.\n\n-----------------------------------------------\n
 \nDemetrius A. Floudas has lived and worked in Moscow for six years. He se
 rved as the Team Leader of the EU Project for Accession of the Russian Fed
 eration to the World Trade Organisation. He is a Visiting Professor at the
  Russian Institute for the Development of Financial Markets and has been "
 widely quoted in the media":https://floudas.journoportfolio.com on matters
  of Foreign Affairs.\n
LOCATION:Lecture Room B16\, Faculty of Law
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