(dpa) - Top European Union officials on
Monday said that they still hoped for EU agreement on key deals with Russia and Serbia, despite ongoing disagreements over both issues.
"Today I am optimistic" that EU foreign ministers will approve the
start of talks on a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Russia and
the signature of a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with Serbia,
EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana said.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the EU's 27 member states are set to meet
in Luxembourg, with both documents on the agenda.
Officials in Brussels hope that the ministers will agree to launch talks with Russia on the PCA, an agreement covering relations on fields ranging from education and
culture to energy and trade.
However, Lithuania has hitherto opposed the opening of talks in protest at Russia's shut-off of oil to its only refinery, and Moscow's recent decision to open relations with
the breakaway Georgian provinces of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
"Lithuania is a distinguished member of the EU and a dear friend of the
presidency so we're trying to find a language that would suit Lithuania.
"On the other hand we're all interested in moving the PCA on ... I
think we have to find a compromise there," Slovenian Foreign Minister
Dimitrij Rupel, who is to chair the meeting, said.
Ministers are also expected to return to a long-running debate
over Serbia's SAA, a document which is widely seen as a precursor to full
membership talks.
Most EU members favour signing the SAA, which was initialled in November,
before Serbia holds snap elections on May 11, as a way of boosting pro-EU
forces in the country.
However, the Netherlands and Belgium oppose such a move, saying that Serbia must first hand over the remaining war-crimes suspects to the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague.
Following a telephone conversation with Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic, Rupel
said that "we're still looking for a solution that would satisfy both the
Serbs and the Dutch and the Belgians and all of us, and as you can understand,
this is difficult."
Ministers could agree to sign the SAA but not to implement it until the
fugitives have been handed over, Rupel said.
However, the SAA can only be signed in the version in which it was initialled,
making it impossible to add any such declaration to the text itself.
On Tuesday evening, representatives of the EU presidency - currently held by Slovenia - and the European Commission are set to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov.
EU leaders are particularly keen to begin talks on the PCA now, as they hope
that the recent election of Dmitry Medvedev as Russia's next president will
allow for an improvement in the current troubled atmosphere between Europe and Russia.
Also on Tuesday, they are expected to call for the signature of an SAA with
Bosnia-Herzegovina as soon as it has been translated into all 23 EU languages.