Poland vetoes EU-Russia negotiations

Poland vetoed the launch of talks between the European Union and Russia on a new partnership agreement yesterday over a meat dispute, casting a shadow over a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Polish move, dramatising latent hostility between Warsaw and its former Soviet master, was a political embarrassment for the 25-nation EU, which will be unable to speak with a single voice at today's meeting with Mr Putin in Helsinki.

Warsaw blocked consensus on a negotiating mandate, spurning a compromise offered by the EU's Finnish presidency on a statement demanding an urgent lifting of Moscow's ban on imports of Polish meat and some other food products.

"Unfortunately the EU was not able to agree on the mandate," said Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, the summit host.

Mr Putin defended the ban, denied it was politically motivated, and called for negotiations to find a solution. "(Poland must) not protect the interests of swindlers and crooks involved in smuggling which hits local producers," he told a news conference after talks with Finland's president.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, accompanying Mr Putin in Helsinki, said it was the EU's problem, not Russia's, and there were lots of other things to discuss at the summit.

Asked if Moscow was disappointed, he said: "We are not. We think Brussels should be disappointed to some extent as this was a perfect opportunity to initiate these negotiations. Most likely we will lose this opportunity." Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga, on a visit to Oslo, said Poland was willing to risk its reputation in the EU over what she called a matter of sovereignty."

"What kind of damage can be (deemed acceptable) when you fight for your sovereignty? You wage everything for this. Everything, even reputation," she said in English.

It was the first time a new member state has used its veto to block negotiations with a third country, and diplomats said many EU governments were exasperated by Warsaw's tactics.

Ms Vanhanen declined to comment on Polish accusations that Moscow was prolonging the ban for political reasons to punish a former satellite that is now a feisty member of the EU and Nato.

EU officials sought to limit the fallout, insisting there were other weighty issues on the summit agenda and the existing 10-year-old agreement with Moscow, due to expire at the end of the year, would remain in force as long as needed.

"I am sure this will be overcome and that we will continue to work in a very normalised manner with Russia," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on a visit to The Hague.

The strategic partnership agreement is due to cover energy, trade, political cooperation, human rights and migration. Russia supplies about 30 per cent of the EU's energy.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso had tried in vain to woo Poland to overcome the blockage, telephoning Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski to promise he would ask Mr Putin at the summit to lift the embargo "as a matter of urgency".

Russia has raised the stakes by threatening to ban all EU meat imports from January due to objections to food safety in two other former communist countries, Bulgaria and Romania, which are due to join the bloc next year.