Last November, Warsaw vetoed talks on a new Russia-EU cooperation agreement to replace the one expiring in late 2007 over a Russian ban on meat and other agricultural imports from Poland. Moscow cited health concerns, but Warsaw said the move was political.
Martin Schulz said during talks with the speaker of the upper house of Russia's parliament, Sergei Mironov, that the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) must not be allowed to fail simply over "Polish sausage."
Schulz said that if the Russian-Polish standoff is of a technical nature and can be resolved between their respective sanitary services, then it would be beneficial to all parties.
Mironov said the text of the new agreement should be prepared and signed soon.
"Of course we can extend the old agreement, which is valid until the end of the year, but for the 10 years of its existence too much water has flowed under the bridge, and we need a full-fledged, full-scale new agreement," he said.
According to him, the position of the EU, which has not given a mandate to begin talks on a new agreement because of Poland, is unconstructive.
"All issues relating to meat deliveries from Poland to Russia are a problem of bilateral relations, and if our sanitary and veterinary services have questions, they must be answered," he said.
At the Russia-EU summit May 17-18, President Vladimir Putin said the row between Russia and Poland over Moscow's ban on meat products from its former Eastern Bloc ally was a commonplace economic issue rather than a political one.
"We all know that there are many disputes within the EU, and between the EU and other countries concerning agricultural issues," Putin said, adding that a common approach to resolving such issues should be developed and applied by all concerned parties.
But the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said Russia's embargo on Polish meat imports was unjustified.
"If there were grounds [for an embargo], we would not allow Poland to circulate meat in the European Union," he said after the summit.
The European Commission has said there were no grounds for an embargo on Polish products, but has admitted that Poland deviated from European regulations on meat exports.
The current PCA between Russia and the EU was signed June 24, 1994 in Corfu, Greece. The document came into force December 1, 1997 and expires at the end of 2007.
Mironov also said he believed members of the European Parliament are often biased while discussing issues related to Russia.
"The issue of Russia has often been discussed recently in the European Parliament in a way that is subjective and not based on reality," he said.
Mironov said Russian energy deliveries to Europe cannot be stopped due to technological reasons rather than political ones.
Saying he is a mining engineer by education, the Federation Council speaker said: "Those who produce raw materials are vitally interested in transporting them to Europe, otherwise the deposits are facing the threat of dying."
Moscow's reliability as Europe's main energy supplier was questioned in early January when a dispute between Russia and neighboring Belarus led to a three-day interruption of oil deliveries to Poland, Germany and other European consumers.
At the time, Minsk imposed a transit fee on Europe-bound crude exports in retaliation for a hike in the natural gas price Moscow charged Belarus. Moscow accused Minsk of illegally tapping the transit pipeline, and shut down oil deliveries until an agreement was reached in emergency negotiations.
A similar situation occurred early last year with Ukraine.
