NEGOTIATE AN ASSOCIATION AGREEMENT WITH RUSSIA !!!

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has stressed that the European Union should conduct negotiations about the signing of an association agreement not only with Ukraine but also with Russia. "The fundamental interest of the EU lies in the fact that Russia would be its reliable and stable partner. The key solution  for the Russian-Ukrainian conflict lies in collaboration with Russia, not in confrontation with it," said Schroeder. He points out that it is not in the interests of Europe or the United States that Russia would focus on Asia not on the EU.

No global problem can be solved without Russia." says Gerhard Schroeder adding that Russia constitutes a sine qua non in world politics. Efforts should be undertaken with Russia, to create "an area of stability and security without dividing lines and divisions" serving a Europe, "which is based on broad cooperation without dividing lines, a community of democratic, constitutional societies with diversified market economies and a high standard of living."

Russia and the EU member states are historically, culturally, and economically inseparable. Together, they form a Europe that is clearly much more than the EU with its crushing bureaucracy. Why is there a need for an "Association Agreement"? The EU and Russia are more than just partners for one another. An Association Agreement would carry meaning in international law. An Association Agreement could address political relations on a far greater scale, to an extent demanded by the specificity and closeness of relations between the EU and Russia. It would open up new perspectives on a Europe that goes beyond the EU - a Europe that will exist for the benefit of all Europeans - in the East as well as the West - and that will be able to hold its own in the competition with China, India, the United States and others.

The actual terms of the Association Agreement would have to be seamlessly integrated into the conceptual framework of the foreign relations of the EU and the Russian Federation. An Association Agreement between EU and Russia would need to clearly go further than the previous EU types of Association Agreements . It would need to keep the entirety of Europe in mind and make an important first step in this direction. Building on and going beyond the recent so-called four common areas of EU-Russia relations would need to finally create common standards without barriers between the EU and Russia. The areas of concern are: 1. Economy, 2. Freedom and Social Affairs, 3. Law, 3. External security, 4. Education, Research and Culture.

The Association Agreement would  agree on specific rules, so that the people from Eastern and Western Europe can join together faster than previously: through unconditional mutual investment in the fields of technology and energy, through the easing of trade restrictions, e.g. the removal of the customs duties, by removing the visa requirement for travel, by recognition of education, exams and so on, and last but not least, the rediscovery of the identity of Europe as a whole, that includes the EU and Russia and to which the Russian emperor Peter the Great already opened the doors 300 years ago.

It is important at this stage in the relations between the EU and Russia to establish the legal relationship between these two European and global actors in such a way that values the particular nature of their relationship. The EU and Russia share more than a technical partnership and cooperation. The EU and Russia form the pillars of a united, whole Europe. The time is ripe for an Association Agreement between the EU and Russia!