EU-Russia Summit... and Polish meat

The much anticipated EU-Russia summit is set to take place later this week. In the lead-up to it, the European Council of Foreign Ministers is meeting to draw up a strategy and a list of grievances that need to be addressed with the Russians.

What is most interesting about this is that I recently completed a simulation course at University which dealt with a series of European Council meetings. During the negotiations about the internal energy market, the issue of Polish meat exports to Russia came up and became a central point for the debate. After a somewhat satisfactory resolution was generated and the class-time was up, our professor condescendingly assured us that, "The European Council would never waste so much time on debating Polish sausage." She punctuated the sentence with a roll of the eyes. I begged to differ, but what do I know? My name isn't followed by a series of letters alleged to convey learnedness and wisdom.

Apparently my professor was quite wrong. As was the case in our simulation, Polish meat exports have become a major talking point from the EU side of things for the future EU-Russia summit. I guess I can now smirk and say something witty like, "The European Council would never waste so much time debating on whether or not it should be debating about Polish sausage."

The following is the article, taken from EuroNews:

EU and Russia approach summit gnashing teeth

An EU summit with Russia scheduled for this Thursday and Friday threatens to degenerate into acrimony, over problems ranging from Polish meat to Kosovo. The 27 European Union foreign ministers have been meeting in Brussels to discuss a growing list of disputes involving Russia and new EU members once within the Soviet sphere.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the EU's current presiding nation Germany stressed that both sides needed each other. "Complicated though the situation is," Steinmeier said, "in times of difficulty it is particularly important to talk. Right up to the summit we will try to resolve the conflict concerning Polish meat."

This is one of the economic blockages: A Russian ban on Polish meat imports - over fraud cases Moscow says - is well into its second year. In retaliation, Warsaw is vetoing the launch of new EU-Russia strategic partnership negotiations. These would cover energy, trade, human rights and foreign policy. Certain groups at the European Parliament last week even suggested cancelling the summit in the southern Russian town of Samara.

Russian-EU ties are further beset by: differences over Serbia's breakaway Kosovo province; Moscow's fury at Estonia's removal of a Soviet monument from Tallinn city centre; Russia's interruption of oil supplies to a Lithuanian refinery; and Russian anger at a planned US missile shield in Eastern Europe.

http://www.euronews.net/index.php?page=europa&article=422169&lng=1