Ahead of the upcoming Russia-EU summit, which is to take place in Portugal on October 26, the Presidential Special Envoy to the European Union, Sergey Yastrzhembsky, has expressed his optimism and hopes for constructive discussions.
He said Russia and the EU have reached an unprecedented level of economic co-operation. “In 2006 trade turnover between Russia and the EU exceeded US $230 bln, which accounts for 53% of Russia's foreign trade. The figures are growing regularly by 20-25% per year. Russia is in third place among the EU's trade partners after the U.S. and China,” Sergey Yastrzhembsky pointed out. “EU countries are the main investors in the Russian economy with 75% of foreign investment made by EU member countries,” he continued. Speaking about the problem of Polish meat supplies, Sergey Yastrzhembsky said the matter should be solved by specialists rather than by politicians. According to the Presidential Envoy there is scope for optimism, “We are confident that the problem of supplies of Polish meat to Russia can be and should be resolved through bilateral discussions.” “Poland's previous government purposefully politicised the problem by forwarding the dispute to the European Union, thus trying to resolve it politically rather than through specialists' discussions,” he stated.