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Yeltsin adds EU to list of clubs he want to join

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Reuter / Philippa Fletcher

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Mar 22, 1997, 3:00:00 AM3/22/97

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<A HREF='http://www.clari.net/'>ClariNet</A> <CLARI-ITEM TYPE>story</CLARI-ITEM> <CLARI-ITEM SLUGWORD>SUMMIT-EU-2NDLD</CLARI-ITEM> from <CLARI-ITEM FROM>Reuter / Philippa Fletcher</CLARI-ITEM> 
<H1><CLARI-ITEM HEADLINE>Yeltsin adds EU to list of clubs he want to join</CLARI-ITEM></H1>
<CLARI-ITEM COPYRIGHT>Copyright 1997 by Reuters</CLARI-ITEM> / <CLARI-ITEM DATE>Sat, 22 Mar 1997 9:40:37 PST</CLARI-ITEM>
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<CLARI-ITEM STORY>
 HELSINKI, March 22 (Reuter) - Russian President Boris
Yeltsin said on Saturday Moscow wanted to join the European
Union as part of its attempt to come in from the cold of post
communist Europe.
 ``(Russia) is also aiming to be recognised finally as a full
European state and we are also prepared to join the European
Union,'' he told reporters after a meeting in Helsinki with
Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
 Central and eastern european states, struggling to revive
economies hit by the collapse of central planning, have been
clamouring to join the queue at the doors of the EU.
 But Moscow has not formally applied for membership and
several European officials have expressed doubts that Russia --
the world's largest country -- would ever be able to join.
 A spokesman for the European Commission, the EU's executive
body, said on Saturday the organisation had taken note of
Yeltsin's unexpected declaration and that it might be discussed
at the Council of EU foreign ministers on Monday.
 Yeltsin's call came amid a strong diplomatic push by Moscow
for greater integration in the international economic community.
 On Friday, President Bill Clinton agreed at a summit in the
Finnish capital to help Yeltsin push for Russian membership of
world economic bodies like the Paris Club of government
creditors and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
 Russia is some way from meeting the conditions for
membership of both those bodies but is making the most of the
West's desire not to leave Moscow feeling left out as NATO
prepares to bring in some former East Bloc states.
 Washington's pledge to help Russia gain entry to the WTO and
Paris Club and to have a fuller role at meetings of the Group of
Seven industrial nations was implicitly aimed at soothing
Moscow's concerns over NATO expansion plans.
 Clinton said the summit had not changed NATO's plans, which
are expected to involve issuing invitations to Poland, Hungary
and the Czech Republic at its July summit in Madrid.
 Yeltsin continues to say he is against NATO expansion, but
agreed with Clinton to seek a separate Russian deal with the
alliance -- implicitly accepting that expansion will go ahead.
 But Russia remains implacably opposed to NATO membership by
former Soviet republics, although Yeltsin failed to persuade
Clinton to back his bid for NATO to commit itself on this.
 Ahtisaari, whose country joined the EU in 1995, said he saw
the remark in the context of heightened tensions between Russia
and the former Soviet Baltic states over Moscow's insistence
that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation leaves them out.
 ``I was not surprised because he mentioned the same thing to
me in our private meeting,'' he said. ``I think it reflected the
point he wanted to make that he...saw it as normal that the
Baltic states were also looking for membership in the European
Union.''
 Moscow has always been far more accepting of other state's
efforts to join the EU than the military alliance. Earlier this
month, the Kremlin described Russian-EU relations as ``key to
strengthening security and stability on the continent''.
 The EU has signed deals with former eastern bloc countries,
who are desperate for the trading benefits which go with greater
integration, and held out the prospect of eventual membership to
10 of them.
 Moscow has also signed a partnership and cooperation
agreement with the EU designed to forge commercial and other
links and to liberalise trade but the EU but does not see it as
leading towards Russia joining the 15-nation body.
 ``We take note of Russian President Yeltsin's declaration.
One should be reminded that we do have a partnership and
cooperation agreement which was signed in Corfu the 24th of June
1994. It has not been ratified yet, but our relations are based
on that,'' a Commission spokesman told Reuters in Brussels.
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