it's five thirty pm here in moscow you're watching our t.v.'s our top stories a final vote on the science to implement new austerity measures is underway in greece after days of massive protests against radical measures to pull the country out of its jackhole. the u.k. braces itself for mass destruction as hundreds of thousands of public sector workers prepare for twenty four hours of industrial action there responding to crime changes to pay and pensions thousands of teachers civil servants and border

control officers say the plans mean more work for reducing tension. because moscow points to double standards at the u.n. over the organization's position on syria saying the crisis warrants a peaceful solution foreign minister sergei lavrov says the security council simply calling for action all the core and what he describes a civil war in yemen. which many countries tightening their belts and feeling the effects of the economic downturn we asked whether the world is really getting value for money the spotlight is next here on our. hello yes and welcome to stop watching the interview shell on parts of i'll be your friend today my guest in the studio instead of no no violence for. the reason

russia has left some of the diplomats questioning a tree with fresh his critics saying such summits cost too much and aren't very effective but maybe this lady was an exception russian elite feel leaders compromised by moscow's ban on here feel vegetables and who printed progress on a visa free regime but is there anything that still remains and so here's the head how the european union delegation to russia to talk about the balance i. ask you is battling back to the european vegetables the headlines of the russia e.u. summit. some other topics moscow wanted to discuss like become dissipated because of the regime talks on that started almost a decade ago the progress has been slow russia and the you are still going through consultations and experts say they will take at least a month by the time that words are because actions they say could be seen as a sign of optimism.

thank you very much for coming to take you to well first of all i want to start with this main question this may is there that came after the summit initially in the russian. diplomats reporters experts started questioning the frequency of the sun and the efficiency of the summit that really aren't 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 i think that for the time being at least this frequency of the summit has certain a certain value and our summits are 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 a bilateral relationship but also how do we perceive in c. certain problems in the world how to solve them and we have this opportunity which i think is sincerely and valuable. this week july the first poland is taking chairmanship in the in union and this country is anything but indifferent towards russia we have. crossed the relations with poland then we have problems in our relations with what what do you expect from polish chairmanship in the european union and then you think that poland will have a special russian a gem there for a syringe. i don't know i mean paul is going to present his priorities for the presidency of the union soon. of course things have changed since the entry into

force of the lisbon treaty in all the rotating presidency has no longer the responsibility for external relations or the. presidency of the european council but it has is still the responsibility of the presidency for a number of issues of e.u. policies and i'm sure that poland will make a very good presidency they have been preparing themselves for that we know that you know that they are really in i have no doubt that they will have him will 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 reactions with were not very likely in the sense that they are not responsible for the foreign relations in there actually on a number of issues it might be might have of course

a bearing but but not on what is the bilateral relation between russia and the e.u. which is a matter now for 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 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 is the last summit with the previous summit where we agreed that the best way to be more efficient in making progress would be to identify where are the problems which are the issues that need to be solved in order to reach in on the this beautiful regime so we can this after that this working groups 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 is still been in there 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 thirdly idea is that when this is steps article we will get to that he said this may be a still a long process let's not create a false or applications of is because some of these steps will be relatively simple and past 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 migration from the countries issues related with the border control a lot of issues which are not simple and you cannot use or 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 on both i mean there will be you know in our view there will be pouring more balls on the russian side so from the russians or the there will be more votes on also expected to be the way to a traveler he said to wit track yes ok you mentioned border control actually the e.u. is a funny organization and the one hand they're talking with russia on a visa free regime something that was i think of a lot like ten twenty years ago russians coming they had ability but on the other hand you are. imposing mechanisms to put border control inside this share of again zone inside your again which is funny only i mean this sounds like a complete contradiction and you've been served i think it sounds like a contradiction but let's be has become great i think the missions that have been approved are first exceptional missions to be applied exceptionally and. temporally the russians say there is nothing as. constant as temporary measures as

a berms sometimes it's true but i think that this is not the is not the case now i think this is this is meant to be very controlled situations i think the case in place was this case in which i'll go ahead italy and france agreed it is my ignorance that came all of a sudden due to the commission in the libyan crisis in that we're caught in italy going into france and also in france realized that there was a need to to establish to control these doesn't mean to reestablish the borders or to establish the customs or in filleted out 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 will have the right to move freely around the e.u. cetera or all the people that are that have a document that allows them they can sustain schengen visa to travel around freely

so this is a matter of control not a matter of office publishing a prohibition or a limitation but these limitations inside europe limitations on free travel through and they will not. influence the process of negotiating the visa free would rush well ok the e.u. nationals that work and russia stay in russia you know a lot of them and you know their main complaints they all complain about the dirac rally house or the bureaucratic restrictions in russia one of them is the registration you have to have registration wherever you go russia and this is a headache 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 right hand i think we have to take note it's very important that russia

already modify somehow the legislation this year and exactly if you make it easier and less or less of a difficulty this whole thing about registration they delayed for just ration in other aspects so that this one one thing that i think we have to acknowledge the other thing is that when we are discussing all the stuff we're using. in due course this will also employ aspects of registration not only in russia but also in the which we are going to discuss we mean 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 entered russia has not objected to this but of course this will come in due course speaking about lawmaking of the state duma deputy mr lebedev proposed recently a draft law aiming to punish foreign citizens including e.u.

nationals who i quote violated the rights of russian citizens nor 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 exactly what is in 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 justice happens if will be a president 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 who will be brought to justice to be trial and eventually can be content to something so if all that is the case in stone in the proper way there is nothing to object of course if that's not exactly the case or

things are not the only proper way then there is a problem says ferdinando and so i had of the european union delegation to russia spotlight we'll be back out there we'll take a break so stay with us we'll continue this interview in the. for the full story we've got it first hand the biggest issues get a human voice face to face with the news makers on our teeth. twenty years ago the largest country in the world the business of the greatest. of. what had been on. the beach began a journey. where did it take.

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if. it is easy to. see. welcome back to spotlight algren arbonne just a reminder that my guest in the studio today is very violent through iowa head of the european union delegation to rush. this evidence of a recently on june the eighth if i'm not mistaken prime minister putin maybe remark

he said travel rules should be equal for all russian citizens but this remark caused concern among the citizens of 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 a good life so so will these will these discussions. be continued despite this remark but. i i i cannot judge of all the remarks of course for us because it's a very very premises and i don't have the the elements but the this information is that the people from kaliningrad have already a special regime which is a typical regime for. course border traffic so people that have the near the border normally have a special regime because both size instances where would you say i mean is normal

is not only occasion kaliningrad in the e.u. but it's in many other parts of of our borders in any other parts of the world in fact and the question now is this regime is somehow be reconsidered to see if it's a master status it is all it has to be enlarged made more flexible so we are working on it on or on our side we are simply we're going to be looking at the pros and cons of different solutions and we will see a game where it is the agreement so so so the europeans they do believe that people like the said grad living in special and special places like an ngo as they should have special special. regulations question of all has been sensitive in the us i say we have this kind of arrangements with all of our other areas ok the. e.u. summit was overshadowed by this rao 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 countries should it take such a high level to solve such a problem you know probably probably already what happened is that this happened just a few days before the summit where i said i hope that labor cucumber is working. this through congress albeit possible something that they have not done because it is not at all you look at brazil at all gave i think with them as we did this. historical moment but not what happened is that this problem arises in the band also took place just a few days before the summit so logically the issue was not solved by the time of the summit of the summit to look at it. otherwise probably would have been

different but i think this simply shows also that summits can devote themselves 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 there has spoiled relations between countries spotlight the media has more on this issue. of. the may outbreak of e. who like in germany was english only blamed on cucumbers from spain delegation caused sales of the vegetables to collapse by the time cucumbers were proved not to be the source strange farmers had lost more than two hundred million euros and it speculations what caused the outbreak russia decided to stay on the safe side and banned the. vegetables at the beginning of june that sun would become trees ruination with the european union which called the russian move this proportion of

the band came as a serious blow to the european economy is russia buys more durable fresh vegetables exported by the e.u. . meanwhile the search for bin factions was led to bin sprouts from northern germany and later it was reported that it was water which contaminated the vegetables the vegetable we should talk a gender at the russian e.u. summit in the june both sides eventually agreed on conditions for the removal of the embargo while the vegetable problem seems to have been russia's agricultural watch dog that's banned inputs from thirteen milk and meat factories in germany jackson factories failed to comply with russian how think the standards. will so far only netherlands and belgium other countries cucumbers are free to travel to russia without elisa. what's the problem with the others i mean the

other european countries they didn't give didn't provide the necessary documents away i think our first let me say that this is not all these visuals of this country or that of the country people coming in because in european union matter. so i suppose that what we are simply talking a lot is different stages in which the process is taking place. what it was agreed what the summit of course agreed on lifting the ban under certain conditions that had to be taking a clean room arranged this took place last week and there was a technical agreement on which this e.u. visit all screwed be exported to russia or imported in russia come in with a certificate that if you get extended by the national laboratories that the e.u. which. notified russia would certify this that's of course where.

necessary to send their conditions. so what happens is that some countries that. commission notified to the russian authorities first but for laboratories for a number of countries now i think i think not i'm sure of that 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 in good logic before spock's to get here were the ones of the first laboratories that had been communicated to russia over it and so this is simply a matter of time and of course of the necessary certificates and for the products to come to the russian customs were the products in the case would be very fine. let's talk about the w t o one of the favorite subjects to clarke but it will says russia and europe government is one of one of the heads of the discussion so so stay in stay in the trend and be customs union russia because

a stand. they are developing this custom union and it's called one of the main obstacles in the way of russia's joining the w t o is it really obstacle and if it is what so what's so strange about it for the europeans you know 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. your in of course then make the necessary i just i'm from phoenix and seen for that what was it a problem and was mainly a problem of time was to try to made a cost and a member of the material 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 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 were some while ago you are quoted as saying that you said that demonic allies in gas problem would be a good thing for russia well when i read that i said mr fulton so is too much of a dirt poor man to say such a thing did you say something about gaspar recently and i don't i don't remember anything specifically to be from serialism it doesn't sound like you know what you think about gazprom but well it is a big company big there's a big tower and do you think do you really agree that there are multiple isolation because in some of the 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 maybe monopolize it and it may be good for russia for russian partners of drawing this is of course it is

a matter of opinion it is it is not one this is a matter of opinion you can feel it one way or another. on the e.u. side we are not be favorable to what our policy 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 see to get better prices to get quality for the consumers so this is our approach but of course it is one or is only specific situations where censors has to take some decisions we cannot enter into that. question the russian energy companies which are gazprom near to grasp of jazz and grasp of whatever. russian energy companies they are complaining that they have a lot of barriers in the european union. and the various there are not letting them

free with access to the markets is it true and is the e.u. ready to compromise on that but would you not think that this exact 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 each that are not of their liking or for russia. into russian companies but is strong and they have good reasons we have for our reasons but i think one one aspect is normally underestimated the third package gives 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 say your way around so i think that's even if the third package is true that introduces some measures these measures are not meant for russian companies that are meant for all the components they are also meant for each components so they are not discriminatory and in exchange they give

the russian companies the right of access thank you thank you for another one question talking tears years ago and just to remind you that my guest in the studio today was for mandela balance so i laugh at how the european union delegation to rush and etc lal from all spotlight will be back with more for us and comment on what's going on in and outside russia until then stay on our take then take it thank you nick.

it's just so.