ENHANCING PEOPLE TO PEOPLE RELATIONS SHOULD BE THE CORNERSTONE OF RENEWED EU-RUSSIA TIES

'People-to-people' contact means interaction between the normal citizens of the EU and Russia at various levels without any official interference and guidance. For such contacts, they obviously have to obtain proper visas and travel documents, but the state's role should end there and beyond that it is the spirit of their interaction and understanding which would shape up ideas, thoughts and responses. Such contacts could be through professional bodies like the bar councils, traders' chambers and associations, industrialists' groups, educational institutions and artists, musicians, singers, film personalities, sportsmen and women, etc. Even free exchange of books, publications and newspapers and television programmes would also fall in the ambit of people-to-people contacts because of their impact on opinion-making and improving relations.

In the context of EU-Russia relations, the people-to-people contacts have not been able to attain the heights they could have. People to people contacts fall in three major categories: business, tourism, and education. While many issues fall within the purview of government policy, they depend upon private citizens and organizations for both advocacy and implementation.

In addition to these priorities, two other aspects of people-to-people relations deserve attention. First of all, the EU should allow its cabinet-level officers to visit Russia. While they are by nature official contacts, they can also be considered an important type of personal interaction and public diplomacy.

Russia’s cultural diplomacy to the EU should be strengthened because culture including language, food, art, literature, music, films, and television is also a major element of a country’s soft power.

1. People-to-people contacts should be maximized between the EU  Member States and Russia.
2. Measures aimed at improving people-to-people contacts should also include the expansion of education cooperation and mobility opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students.
3. Networking and exchange between civil society groups and their counterparts in Russia and at European level should be supported. The goal should be to strengthen civil society bodies and their role in the political process, enhance the capacity of civil society organisations to develop cross-border projects and networks, and familiarize civil society representatives and opinion leaders with EU affairs.
4. Cooperation and transfer of know-how between business, trade union, and professional organisations in Russia  and the corresponding EU level organizations should be promoted.

People to people contacts are one of the best ways of easing problems that both sides currently face and avoid them in the future. Over time, people to people contacts will help to build trust and deepen mutual understanding on both sides. A key characteristic of the people-to-people cooperation is in its multifaceted, extremely diverse and complex nature. This cooperation includes a whole universe of directions and engaged actors, formats and levels, communities and networks. The "fabric" of humanitarian ties between the people might look thin and fragile, but it often proves to be much more "crisis-resistant" than security or even economic interaction.

Russia is a country of the European culture. It belongs to the European civilization, and its science, education and its civil society institutions gravitate to Europe more than to any other region of the world.

Second, people to people cooperation should be used to counter inflammatory rhetoric, projection of oversimplified and false images, and spread of Manichean black and white views on European politics, which we see emerging both in the East and in the West. We should not have any illusions: If the current trends in public moods in Russia and in EU are not reversed, it would be extremely difficult to restore relations.

Specific Actions

1. We should try to promote "success stories" in Russia-Europe cooperation between civil societies, which we have accumulated plenty in various fields.
2. We should oppose any attempts to tighten the visa regime between Russia and EU.
3. We should encourage more contacts between Russian and EU regions, sister-cities and municipalities, including trans-border contacts.
4. We should invest heavily into youth exchanges, school children and students mobility.
5. We should upgrade cooperation between Russian and European independent think tanks and research centers.
6. We should broaden existing channels for a range of participants to EU-Russia NGO interaction, making sure that this interaction is not monopolized by any particular group of institutions with their specific political agendas.
7. We should explore new ways to make cultural diplomacy between the East and the West of Europe more efficient.
8. We should pay special attention to building more contacts between Russia and EU media.
9. We should investigate opportunities associated with cultural tourism.

The list of immediate actions can be continued. These actions might look less spectacular than a highly publicized security agreement or a multi-billion euro energy deal. But we should never forget that, at the end of the day, relations between Russia and the West are not limited to contacts between state leaders, diplomats, uniformed men or even between business tycoons. These relations are mostly about ordinary people -- their fears and hopes, frustrations and expectations, and their day-to-day lives and plans for the future.

Without the human factor involved, nothing else is likely to work. But we would like to propose one action that can be taken immediately, one action that could be a symbol of determination and of hope, one action toward the youth of Europe and Russia. In the same way as France and Germany reconciled with the Elysee Treaty in 1963 by creating a common agency for the youth, we would like to see the premises of a Russian-European reconciliation through the creation of a Russian-European Youth Agency based on student exchanges, fellowships for entrepreneurial and innovative initiatives, support for language training, and many other actions.