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June 2006 Interfax - EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana granted an interview to Interfax correspondent Olga Golovanova ahead of the Russia-EU summit in Sochi.
 How would you assess the state of relations between Russia and the European Union? What in your opinion helps broaden cooperation and what factors have been impeding it? We have close ties with Russia, which is a partner of great importance to he EU. Our relationship is a strategic partnership, based on shared values and shared interests, which we want to develop further.  The current summit is kind of assessing the results of Russian and EU experts' lengthy effort to forge bilateral agreements relaxing visa procedures and regulating readmission. What do you think is the role of these documents in a broad context for the people of Russia and EU countries? What are prospects for advancement towards a visa-free regime in our citizens' travel? The agreements on visa facilitation and readmission will be signed at the Summit. Russians coming to EU countries and citizens of EU Member States going to Russia will find it cheaper and easier to get visas. This will make a big difference to, for example, Russian holidaymakers and businesspeople coming to the EU. Although we have not agreed yet on a visa free regime, the visa facilitation agreement brings us a step closer to that objective. The agreement on readmission means that the EU and Russia will be able to improve their co-operation in tackling illegal immigration and asylum, a responsibility that we share as neighbours.
 Intensive debates have been going on in the European Union regarding the future institutional setup of the European Union, including the future of the European Constitution project. Concurrently, enlargement is continuing. The European Union will accept Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Talks are underway with Croatia and Turkey. The European Commission you head is also reassessing its role. What will these processes mean in practice for the European Union's relations with Russia? In other words, will it be more difficult or easier for us to cooperate with a renewed European Union? The European Union is growing and our goal, under our common foreign and security policy, is to develop an increasingly close partnership between the European Union as a whole and Russia. The EU institutions play an increasingly important role in European policy. As the EU enlarges, we need to simplify its structures so that the EU operates more efficiently. This can only help us in developing our relations with our strategic partners, including Russia. We were very pleased that Russia welcomed our latest enlargement and since then we have seen a further intensification of our relations. There is every reason to expect this positive trend to continue.
 It is well known that there is no unanimity in the European Union concerning the parameters and modality of further cooperation with Russia in the energy sector. What should the European Commission's role be in this connection? Energy cooperation is a natural part of foreign and security policy which we discuss with our key partners. Russia has an important role as a major energy supplier to the EU and the EU has an important role as a major export market for Russian energy.
We want to cooperate closely with Russia over energy in order to ensure reliable supplies - consumer security - and a stable basis for our economic cooperation. We believe this is best achieved through transparency, open competition and equal access to investment, markets and infrastructure, as well as good cooperation on the environment. We see energy as an important factor for stability and integration on the European continent.
 Gazprom fears that, by joining the Transit Protocol of the Energy Charter, it could incur unilateral sanctions. The company argued that the Energy Charter Secretariat remained inactive when Ukraine was siphoning off Russian gas intended for European consumers. If the European Commission really wants, based on this protocol, to build an effective mechanism of energy security, doesn't it think that sanctions should be applied on Ukraine for violating this protocol, thus proving to Gazprom that this document works? The Energy Charter Treaty establishes principles and mechanisms that ensure that international energy co-operation is fair, effective, transparent and predictable. If Russia had already ratified this Treaty, I am convinced it would have been easier to find a good and fair solution to the dispute with Ukraine at the beginning of this year. Russia has everything to gain from ratifying the Treaty.
 How in your opinion should the problem of the status of ethnic minorities in the Baltic countries be tackled? Does the European Commission have any real levers to ensure the fulfilment of the obligations under the Russia-EU Joint Statement assumed in April 2004? The Joint Statement of April 2004 welcomed the EU enlargement as a firm guarantee for the protection of human rights and the protection of persons belonging to minorities. We think this guarantee has been and is being respected. The EU continues to give support for the integration of the Russian speakers. We are particularly pleased that the numbers of applications for citizenship in Estonia and Latvia has gone up after the enlargement. It shows that the situation continues to improve.
 The Russia-EU Agreement on partnership and cooperation expires in 2007. How do you see the future of relations between Russia and the European Union? What model will, in your opinion, better reflect the interests of our peoples? A great deal has changed both in the EU and in Russia since the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement came into force nearly ten years ago. Russia is now a different country and is, for example, in the process of joining the WTO. The EU has grown in size and has developed its common foreign and security policy. We need to update our contractual relationship to better reflect these changes and allow us to deepen our relationship further.
 What is your opinion about how to solve the Iranian nuclear program? How the EU will react if Iran rejects "European troika"'s new peaceful proposals? Will the EU in this situation apply sanctions against Iran?The EU remains committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the conflict over Iran's nuclear programme. It is currently developing a package of incentive measures which show that we have nothing against Iran using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. It will be an ambitious package offered by the EU and other members of the international community. If Iran rejects it, it will be clear that it does not want to cooperate. In parallel, the members of the UN Security Council are discussing a resolution that would oblige Iran to comply with the demands of the international community.
 Under what circumstances will the EU be ready to give financial help to Palestinian people? Will the EU take into account Russian experience in this sphere? The EU has always been ready to help the Palestinian people and will not let them down. That is why it is now working on the establishment of a mechanism to deliver with maximum efficiency the assistance that cannot go to or through the Palestinian government. For normal relations to resume with the Palestinian government, the international community requires the recognition of Israel, the renunciation of violence and acceptance of past agreements.