EU, Russia fail to reach accord at summit

THE HAGUE -- Russia and the European Union failed yesterday to complete negotiations on a "strategic partnership" because of disagreements over security and other issues at a summit overshadowed by the Ukraine political crisis. The two sides said they were confident a final pact will be reached next May, however.

"We have not reached agreement on all" points, Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands said after meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia at an EU-Russia summit. "There is still a great deal to be done."

However, both said the talks proved valuable. "Everyone sees movement forward. . . . This work will be accomplished" by May, when the next summit is due, Putin said.

Putin said Russia-EU relations are strong and described the talks as very productive.

Still, tension over Ukraine was on stark display at the summit. The presidential election results are in dispute, with the Kremlin-backed candidate declared the victor and the Western-leaning advocate of change crying foul and appealing to Russia's Supreme Court. US and European leaders have criticized the election, which international monitors suggest might have been rigged.

Sitting side by side with top EU officials, Putin defended his support for the vote's officially declared winner and pointedly warned foreign countries against interfering. "These elections do not need any affirmation from outside," he said.

With the EU and the United States rejecting the Ukrainian election commission's declaration that Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych beat opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko in the Nov. 21 runoff -- and throngs of protesters crowding the capital -- Putin suggested the West's reaction could worsen the crisis.

"I am deeply convinced that we have no moral right to push a big European state to any kind of massive disorder," he said.

Despite the harsh words, Putin touted the developing Russia-EU partnership.

He said Russia's extension of an agreement to the new EU members from the former Soviet sphere of influence, and its recent ratification of the Kyoto Protocol climate-change pact -- which the EU had urged -- "once again confirm our strategic choice in favor of a common Europe -- a Europe without dividing lines, stable, and thriving."

The goal of the planned new partnership is to boost ties in four areas: the economy; freedom, security, and justice; external security; and research, education, and culture.

The Dutch leader, whose country holds the EU presidency, said there would be further talks. Balkenende said the sides could not agree on how to craft closer cooperation on security, an area that touches on Russia's relations with Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus, and the Caucasus republics. The EU wants to reach out to its eastern neighbors with economic and political assistance, while Moscow is wary of an expanding Europe in its sphere of influence.

Moscow has complained about what it considers Western Europe's interference on human rights in Chechnya. Russia also accuses the EU of double standards, saying the treatment of Russian-speaking minorities in the EU's Baltic states of Latvia and Estonia falls short of international and EU standards.

The new European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, and Putin's EU relations aide, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said Russia and the EU had agreed to launch a regular dialogue on human rights -- a way to address Russia's concerns about the Baltics and EU worries about fundamental rights and freedoms in Russia.

They also agreed to work together on the social and economic development of Kaliningrad, a Russian Baltic Sea enclave surrounded by EU nations.