BALTIC EXCLAVE: RUSSIA, EU TO SET UP AD HOC TEAM

MOSCOW, February 27 (RIA Novosti) - It would be expedient for Russia and the European Union to establish a joint high-level ad hoc team to tackle the Kaliningrad issue, deems Moscow. The team ought to have sufficient competence for obliging resolutions on the problems that harass Russia's Baltic exclave after the EU enlargement placed it inside the Schengen zone.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, is meeting at the negotiation table in Luxembourg tomorrow with the European Union's leading three to debate the Kaliningrad issue, announced Alexander Yakovenko, official spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Parties must fully comply with obligations they made in a joint statement of April 27, 2004, on EU enlargement and Russian-EU relations. That's the point Moscow proceeds from on the matter.

The conference of February 28 will regard the issue in that context to analyze prospects for practical arrangements of a dialogue on the enlargement-bred Kaliningrad problems. With that end in view, Moscow finds it necessary to establish a high-level Russia-EU team, competent to make obliging decisions, said the diplomat.

The Luxembourg conference, at a foreign-ministerial level, will involve Russia, Luxembourg as current EU chair country, and the UK as the upcoming. The EU Council Secretary General and a European Commission member will also attend.