One of the key issues on the agenda will be preparations for the Russia-EU summit due on November 11, 2004, in the Hague. Ahead of it, the parties will discuss the progress in drafting the so-called road maps to form four common spaces of Russia and the European Union - economic space, domestic and foreign security space, and the space of scientific research, education and culture.
Sergei Lavrov intends to draw his counterparts' attention to the problem of cargo transit between the Kaliningrad region, Russia's enclave in the Baltic, and the rest of the country. After Lithuania, which borders on the Kaliningrad region, joined the EU and introduced the EU standards on May 1, 2004, conditions of cargo transit deteriorated, which "has inflicted real losses on the region," the Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.
Moscow believes that the problem could be solved by a special agreement between the EU, Lithuania and Russia. "This agreement should guarantee stable regime and transit conditions, ruling out their worsening in the future," Yakovenko pointed out.
Also, the Russian Foreign Minister intends to point to the need to observe rights of national minorities in Latvia and Estonia, which are now EU members. The commitments to protect their rights were registered in the Joint Declaration on the EU expansion and relations between Russia and the EU, adopted on April 27, 2004, in Luxembourg.
The negotiations will focus on the anti-terrorist topic as well. According to Yakovenko, Russia expects the EU members "to unconditionally apply single standards in fight against terrorism."
In the European Commission's press service RIA Novosti learned that the meeting would touch upon international problems as well, such as the developments in the Middle East, Iraq and Iran, as well as the Transdnestrian settlement [Transdnestria is a self-proclaimed republic in Moldova].
