Recently the House of Lords European Union Committee published a report entitled ‘The European Union and Russia', which called on the EU to continue to engage with Russia on a broad range of issues, and to base its relations with the country on a long-term perspective.
In its report, the Lords EU Committee raises concerns over Russia's slide away from democracy, and examines the implications of the recent election of President Dmitri Medvedev.
The Committee supports Medvedev's stated aim of strengthening the rule of law in Russia, but warns that it remains to be seen what concrete steps he will take to achieve this.
"If Russia falls short of the standards it has accepted under the Council of Europe and the OSCE in the area of democracy and human rights, criticism by the EU may at times be necessary," the document says.
Overall, the Committee recommends that the EU formulate a united strategy in the pursuit of engagement with Russia at all levels and in all policy areas, using a hard-headed and unsentimental approach. This should take into account Russia's increasingly confident and assertive behaviour on the world stage.
It adds that it is important that the EU stand "shoulder to shoulder" with its member states when they come into conflict with Russia on international issues.
Members of the House of Lords - Professor Lord William Wallace and Professor Lord Robert Skidelsky - shared their views with RIA Novosti on how this report reflects the overall opinion of the British ruling class toward the EU's negotiations with Russia, and whether the recommendations contained in it will bring results.
Lord Wallace: All parties in Britain now agree that the EU needs a common approach to Russia. Russia is clearly one of the EU's most important partners, in economic and political terms, and as a direct neighbour with a long common frontier. Neither Russia nor the West European members of the EU have yet adjusted to the significance of the enlargement of the EU to include eight formerly socialist states. It's not in Russia's long-term interest to give EU member states the impression that it prefers a ‘divide and rule' strategy to a negotiated partnership with the EU as a whole. Russia will benefit far more from constructive partnership than from a slide back towards mutual suspicion.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire is a Liberal Democrat peer, spokesperson in the Lords for home affairs (since 2007), and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for foreign and Commonwealth affairs (since 2005). In 2004 he was elected joint deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat Peers.
William Wallace was created a Baron of the United Kingdom for life in 1995. Since then he has been Liberal Democrat spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Defence. In 2001 he became the Liberal Democrats' main frontbench spokesperson in the House of Lords on Foreign Affairs.
Since 1995, he has been professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics.
Lord Skidelsky: The EU Foreign Affairs Committee's Report on ‘the EU and Russia's is a sensible document, which helpfully maps out the areas for EU-Russia cooperation, while not denying that there are topics of disagreement. It rightly says that most of the questions between the EU and Russia are negotiable. For example ‘We believe that potential frictions [regarding EU policy to Eastern Europe and the Caucasus] can be better managed if the Union consults with Russia over all aspects of the European Neighbourhood Policy'. This should be a general rule: neither side should surprise the other by acting unilaterally on matters which concern both.
Human rights issues, as the report tactfully puts it, are ‘challenging'. There is no doubt that nothing antagonises the British so much as the suspicion that the Russian state pursues a policy of persecuting its opponents to the point of assassination. The Russians have paid a heavy price for Khodorkovsky and Politkovskaya. People in Britain mind this much more than the so-called ‘lack of democracy'. If this seamy underbelly of Russian politics was cleaned up, Russia would get a much better hearing from the British - and the Europeans in general - for the issues on which it deserves to be heard with attention and respect.
Lord Skidelsky of Tilton is professor of political economy at the University of Warwick. Robert Skidelsky was elevated to the House of Lords in 1991 and served as chief opposition spokesman on Treasury affairs (1998-1999). From 1991 to 2001 he was chairman of the Social Market Foundation. Since 2002, he has been chairman of the Centre for Global Studies (London). Lord Skidelsky is a non-executive director of Janus Capital Inc, Chairman of the Greater Europe Fund, and director of Transnational Insights Ltd. A Russian speaker, he is Director of the Moscow School of Political Studies and Founder and Executive Secretary of The UK/Russia Round Table.
