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here without hearing now of our top stories i grew protests for the response to the greek government's approval of cost cuts in order to secure further financial support from the e.u. police fired tear gas and stun grenades at crowds of people throwing stones and smashing windows and. the u.k. braces itself for the us have struck a public sector workers stratton's to severely disrupt schools and transport. teachers and civil servants are staging a workout against government plans to cut their pensions and freeze pay. as the u.s. secretary of defense robert gates prepares to say goodbye to the pentagon it's the cia chief who's taking over but critics question whether this appointment will end the rules currently driving expanding village budget. but with many

countries tightening their belts and feeling the effects of the economic downturn we ask whether the world really is getting value for money spotlight is up next. hello yes hello welcome to spotlight the into show arts and i'm already operating today my guest in the studio is. the reason russia has left some of the diplomats questioning your true officials critics saying such summits cost too much and aren't very effective but maybe this lady was an exceptional russian and you feel needed is compromised by moscow's ban on european vegetables and blueprinted progress on a visa free regime but is there anything that still remains and so here's the head

of the european union delegation to russia to go through and. ask those battling back to european vegetables the headlines of the russian e.u. summit. some other topics moscow wanted to discuss like become disappointed because of the regime talks and that started almost a decade ago but progress has been slow russia still going through consultations and experts say they will take at least a month but the fact that words have become actions they say could be seen as a sign of optimism. thank you very much for coming thank you to well first of all i want to start with this main question this may news that came out after the summit a nation in the russia. diplomats reporters experts started questioning the frequency of the summit they efficiency of the summits that really are costly so is

it true and do you think that it really may become a case that the. frequency of the summit will be reduced. no i mean everything is possible but it's not something that is on the agenda right now this has never been discussed and are things that for the time being at least this frequency of the summits certain a certain value are summit saw an opportunity of course on the one hand to solve issues of problems but not only that it's also an opportunity a unique opportunity for leaders to get together to get to know each other better to discuss about issues of common interest not only about the bilateral relationship but also how do we perceive in c. certain problems in the world how to solve them and they have this opportunity which i think is sincerely valuable. this week actually on

july the first poland is taking chairmanship in the european union and this country is anything but indifferent towards russia we have a special relations with poland and we have problems in our relations with poland well what do you expect from the polish chairmanship in the european union and do you think that poland will have a special russian agenda for his chairmanship. i don't know i mean polling is going to present priorities for the presidency of the union soon. of course things have changed since the entry into force of the lisbon treaty and now the rotating presidency has no longer the responsibility for external relations or the. presidency of the european council but it has a still the responsibility of the presidency for a number of issues of policies and i'm sure that the poland will make

a very good presidency they have been preparing themselves for that we know that we know that they are ready and i have no doubt that they will have to do a very good presidency and in terms of. russian poland relations russia e.u. relations do you think that that poland polish presidency will. play some role in making this russian issue special for the e.u. and for relations with were not directly in the sense that they are not responsible for the foreign relations in there actually on a number of issues it might might have of course a bearing but but not on what is the bilateral relations between russia and the e.u. which is a matter now for the institutions in brussels. on the twenty seventh of june russian and the european union diplomats had their meeting and these are related issues and agreed on some i quote joint action steps on the way to these are free

travel could you specify what have these joint action steps well this is something that came out of the not this dust summit but the previous summit where we agreed that the best way to be more efficient in making progress would be to identify were of the problems which are the issues that need to be solved in order to reach one day this was a regime so we don't these after that this working groups got together start working identifying which. those issues would be now they have almost come to an end not completely and that's why i cannot give you a complete list of it because it has still been been dealt with but i am quite convinced that in a matter of perhaps a few weeks we would have a list of these come steps that we call because our steps that we are going to tackle together and the idea is that when this is steps article we will get to the

visa through regime this may be a still a long process let's not create false potentials of this because some of these steps will be relatively simple in fast all those will take longer not for the matter of lack of will to solve them but simply because the issues are more complex issues related to for instance be gratian from the countries issues related with a border control number of issues which are not simple and you cannot resolve just in one day. when you say. hard issues difficult issues issues that will take years to tackle you mean the ball is in russian side or both both i mean there will be you know in our view there will be more balls on the russian side absent from the russian point of that there will be more votes on all sides to be a two way to a traveler they said to which yes ok you mentioned border control actually the e.u. is a funny organization on the one hand they're talking with russia on

a visa free regime something that was unthinkable lot like ten twenty years ago russians coming that of unity but on the other hand you are. imposing mechanisms to put border control inside the shell game zone in scientific eurabia which is funny i mean i mean this sounds like a complete contradiction don't you think so i think it sounds like a contradiction but let's be let's be concrete i think this measures that have been approved are first exceptional measures to be applied exceptionally and. temporally the russians say there is nothing as as constant as temporary measures and sometimes sometimes it's true but i hope that this is not the is not the case now i think this is this is meant to deal with very political situations i think the case in place was this case in which on the other hand italy and france agreed it is migrants that came all of the southern due to the tunisian and libyan crisis in

that were caught in italy going into france and also then france realize that there was a need to to establish to control these doesn't mean to reestablish the borders or to restart is the customs or anything like that but simply a control of identity for the people going through this does not in any way of course affect the rights of the different e.u. nationals and citizens who have the right to move freely around in the e.u. cetera or all the people that are that have a document that allows them like for instance the visa to travel around freely so this is a matter of control not a matter of establishing a prohibition or a limitation but these limitations inside europe the limitations on free travel for wagons they will not. influence the process of negotiating the visa free russian well ok the e.u. nationals that work and russia that stay in russia you know

a lot of them and you know their main complaints they all complain about the bureaucratic hassle the bureaucratic restrictions in russia one of them is the registration we have to have registration wherever you go in russia and this is a headache for for europeans there was the issue of the registration and maybe other problems faced by europeans in russia what they discussed during the summit and did russia promise anything to to make it easier to live life easier . on the way hand i think we have to take note it's very important that russia already modify somehow the legislation this year and exactly to make it easier and less less of a difficulty this whole thing up of registration they delayed for a few stray ssion in all aspects so that this one one thing that i think we have to acknowledge the other thing is that when we are discussing of all the sufi regime.

in due course this will also imply aspects of registration not only in russia but also in india in the which we are going to discuss the beautifully meaning we are going to discuss about free access. one to another territory so yes in that respect the commitment is that we will discuss everything and russia has not objected to this but of course this will come in due course speaking about lawmaking at the state duma deputy that mr lebedev proposed recently a draft law aiming to punish foreign citizens including the e.u. nationals who i quote violated the rights of russian citizens and the law implies freezing bank accounts of such individuals do you think the e.u. will somehow reacts to this legislation i don't know i cannot say because of course this this is only one one line we will have to look at it and see exactly what is

on it what we of course respect is whatever decision is taken it will be a decision that will be according to international standards and international principles and of course a quarantine by law and by the just happens it is it will be unprecedented would well but it happens i mean if you commit a crime i don't know if we are talking that in you citizen or whoever commits a crime well it has to be trial and brought to justice to be trial and eventually can be condemned to something so if all that is the case in his own in the proper way there is nothing to object of course if that's not exactly the case all things are not talking in the proper way then there is a problem that says fair nando and so i had of the european union delegation to russia spotlight we'll be back shortly after we take a break so stay with us we'll continue this interview in the.

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welcome back to spotlight i'm al gore and often just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is fairly. head of the. european union delegation to russia. mr violence or other recently on june the eighth if i'm not mistaken prime minister putin made the remark he said travel rules should be equal for all russian citizens but this remark caused a concern among the citizens among the russians who live in kaliningrad because there they have been discussions on a special agreement on special travel rules for the people because they live in an unpaved so so will these will these discussions. be continued despite this remark but. i i i cannot judge of all the remarks of course because

it's made by the prime minister second i don't have the moments but the situation is that the people from kaliningrad have already a special regime which is a typical regime for. cross border traffic so people that the near the border normally have a special regime because both size goals are instances fair which is fair i mean is normal is not only a case in kaliningrad in the e.u. but it is in many other parts of of our borders and in other parts of the world in fact and the question now is this regime is somehow being reconsidered to see if it has to stay as it is all it has to be enlarged made more flexible so we are working on it on in or on our side we are simply working and it looking at the process in calls of different solutions and to be will see where it is the agreement so so so the europeans they do believe that people like the sense of current grad living in

the special and special places like of enclaves they should have special special regulations press with i've always been sensitive to these and as i say i mean we have this kind of arrangements with over all the areas ok the ole. russia e.u. summit was overshadowed by this route over the vegetables the scandal when the russians banned all european vegetables and russia is is i think the biggest market for european vegetables so. are you sure do you think that this is fair that this problem had to be solved by president medvedev and the leaders of the european countries should it take such a high level to solve such a problem i know probably probably probably what happened is that this happened just a few days before the summit i said i hope that is the cucumber is all ok. this converse

of being possible is something that they have not done because it is not of all the local president or gave i think with them as we keep this. historical moment but not what happened is that this problem arises and the ban also took place just a few days before the summit so logically the issue was not solved by the time of the summit and the summit had to look at it. all the wise probably it would have been different but i think this simply shows also that summits and they've all of them selves to high political issues are complex issues but also two very practical ones well the deadly strain of bacteria e-coli has taken dozens of lives it has spoiled relations between countries spoiled life you'll admit there has more on this issue. the may outbreak of cool like in germany was only shown blamed on cucumbers from spain delegation caused sales of the vegetables to collapse by the time cucumbers were proved not to be the source

danish farmers had lost more than two hundred million euros amid speculations on what caused the outbreak russia decided to stay on the safe side and banned the import of all e.u. vegetables at the beginning of june that soured the country's ruination with the european union which called the russian move disproportionate the burn came as a serious blow to the european economy is russia should buy as it would to remove fresh vegetables exported by the e.u. . meanwhile this search for the infections led to bin sprouts from northern germany and later it was reported that it was water which contaminated the age of the bulls the vegetable we should top they gender at the russian e.u. summit in may june both sides eventually agreed on conditions for the removal of the embargo while the danger to both problems seems to have been resolved russia's

agricultural watchdog has banned inputs from thirteen milk and meat factories in germany check show the factories failed to comply with russian how safe are the standards. paula so far only netherlands and belgium other countries cucumbers are free to travel to russia without a visa. what's the problem with the others i mean the other european countries they didn't give didn't provide the necessary documents so i think our first let me say that this is not a model these digitals of this country or that of a country to come in this is in european union matter. so i suppose that what we are simply talking about is different stages in which the process is taking place. what it was agreed the summit of course agreed on lifting the ban under certain conditions that had to be taking achille arranged this took place last week and

there was a technical agreement on which are this e.u. which it all screwed be exported to russia or imported in russia come in with a certificate that in e.u. certificate extended by the national laboratories that the e.u. would. notify russia and would certify it got these products of course where. necessary sanitary conditions. so what happens is that some countries that. commission notified to the russian authorities first but laboratories for a number of countries now i think i think not i'm sure all the laboratories from other countries have been also communicated and i think that the case here is that the first ones were these ones so in good logic the first products to get here were the ones of the first laboratories that had been communicated to the russian authorities so this is simply

a matter of time and of course of having the necessary certificates and for the products to come to the russian customs were the products and they said the case will be very fine. let's talk about the w.t. one of the favorite subjects to talk when it concerns russia and europe the bluto is one of one of the heads of all the discussion so so let's stay in this state in the trend and the customs union russia bilal hussein because a stand. they are developing this custom union and it's called one of the main obstacles under way of russia's joining the w t o is it really an obstacle and if it is what so what's so strange about it for the europeans no i think the question is the following and i don't think it is an obstacle right now is not an obstacle right now because of russia decided to accede individually to t w t o and of course then make the necessary adjustments within the course of jean for that what was

a problem and was mainly a problem of time was to try to made the customs gene a member of the gluteal not because that is impossible in any way but simply because that would have meant to begin negotiations practically from scratch so i think this was the decision that was taken by russia was the right decision and our i think that we are very close now and in any case the customs union is not an issue on the table at this moment ok now another thing. i wanted to ask you is about one of your. interviews that you gave well some while ago you are quoted as saying that you said that the monopole lies in gazprom would be a good thing for russia well when i read that i said mr bullen so is too much of a diplomat to citizenship thing this is saying something about gaspar recently and i don't i don't remember how i said anything a specific like you have to be from. this doesn't sound like you but what do you

think about gazprom while it is a big company big tower do you think they do really agree that there were the polarization because it is a monopoly it calls itself a gas monopoly but they say they say they are alike and reginald monopoly i mean they should be available do you think that it may be monopolized and it may be good for russia or for russian partners abroad this is of course it is a matter of opinion so on it is that there is not one truth this is a matter of opinion and you can feel it one way or another. on the e.u. side we are not favorable to monopolies in general is not talking about that's probably talking about monopolies in general because we believe that competition is a better way and a better instrument to get fish and seed to get better prices to get quality for the consumers so this is our approach but of course is one on is own a specific situation circumstances has to take its own decisions we cannot enter

into that. last question the russian energy companies which are gazprom gazprom the have to grasp from gaza and gas from whatever. russian energy companies they are complaining that they have a lot of barriers in the european union. the barriers there are not letting them access the markets is it true and is the e.u. really to compromise that but what if i don't think that this exact or correct i think that. precisely i know that this third package which is the last legislation that the e.u. has passed on the energy market has elements on eight that are not of the liking of russia and the russian companies but is strong in the heart of the reasons we have for our reasons but i think one one aspect is normally underestimated the third package geese precisely the right to foreign companies

including the russian companies to accede to the e.u. market i think this is more than we can save your way around so i think that even if the third package is true that introduces some measures these measures are not meant for russian companies they are meant for all the companies they are also meant for evil companies so they are not discriminatory and in exchange they give the russian companies right off axis thank you thank you for another was a pleasure talking to you as usual and just a reminder that my guest in the studio today was a man of well and so well that had our the european union's delegation to rush and that's certain now from our spotlight will be back with more press and comments on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on our take then thank you you thank

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