6th Europe-Russia Forum
Warsaw, Poland ,
31 May-1 June, 2011
Under the Honorary Patronage of Mr Grzegorz Schetyna,
President of the Polish Parliament
"Russia 2010. Report on Transformation" - pdf
The motto of the 6th Europe-Russia Forum is "Partnership for Modernization" and to this subject referred the plenary session with participation of Parliament Speakers, which was attended by: Grzegorz Schetyna - Speaker of Polish Sejm; Norbert Lammert - Speaker of German Bundestag; Luka Bebić - Speaker of Croatian Parliament, Ene Ergma - Speaker of Estonian Riigikog, Jordi Jane - Deputy Speaker of Spanish Cortes Generales and Alexander Pochinok - Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federal Council.
The idea of partnership between the European Union and Russia for the benefit of modernization, initiated by President Dmitri Medvedev during the Stockholm EU-Russia summit in 2009, including a wide range of joint actions for the benefit of establishing one common area in economy, energy, trade and culture between Europe and Russia, met with a positive response from the European Commission and a great interest of the majority of the member states. The idea of Partnership sparked also interest among Russian analytical centres, state bodies, economic and regional structures and non-governmental organizations.
The Speaker of German Bundestag, Norbert Lammert, stressed that it is not possible to speak about lasting cooperation and partnership without "democratization and rule of law". - Long-term partnership cannot be built without these components, and there is no consensus regarding this issue among Russian political elites. A part of it considers modernization in the context of economy and infrastructure. According to Lammert, the situation in Russia still raises doubts in the European public opinion after the first trial of Khodorkovsky.
Lammert mentioned also successes in Russian-EU relations. - Exactly a year ago the topic of Partnership for Modernization was initiated. We have been successful in the area of trade, research projects and infrastructure. In his opinion the least progress is noticeable in democracy and law and order.
Luka Babic, the Speaker of Croatian Parliament, stated that Russia has taken the first position as regards time and energy that the European Union has ever directed towards a single state, which is outside of its structures. - Russia is an important trading partner for the EU, a supplier of natural resources, but, on the other hand, CIS states are the most important target for supply of technology and innovations for the EU.
According to Babic, a correlation is noticeable in the area of energy; that is why it is important to develop the energy network, transmission infrastructure and production capacity. As he assured, accession of Croatia to the European Union will not undermine the rank of bilateral relations between Zagreb and Moscow.
According to Ene Ergma, the Speaker of Estonian Riigikog, one of important issues for modernization is development of civil society. It is a difficult path, which can be overcome only when the authorities really want it - said Ene Ergma. As she added, today is the 31st of May, a day when Ludmila Aleksiejeva and other democrats will defend the civil society.
Jordi Jane - Deputy Speaker of the Spanish General Courts, remarked that a precondition for success of the project 'Partnership for Modernization' is mutual trust and consensus as regards the goals. - Real modernization is possible only with respect of the foundations of the rule of law - emphasized Jordi Jane.
PARTICIPANTS:
Government officials and political leaders, business executives, local government and NGO activists, leading analysts and academics. Approximately 200 participants from the EU, CIS and USA are expected to attend the Forum.
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