Romania – The Bridge to Russia

Since 2007 the European Union developed a increased interests in doing business with Russia, one of the key interests of the EU politics being: Europe and Russia – building a strategic partnership.

The 2003 EU Security Strategy presented Russia as being a key player in terms of geo-political and security terms at global and regional level.
Russia is a key actor in the UN Security Council. It contribute to the Europe cultural heritage and it is also a major supplier of energy products to the EU.
What is consider, however, the major topic of de development of the commercial relationships is the fact that Russia is a large and dynamic market for EU goods and services, with considerable economic growth.

The EU and Russia are already cooperating in terms of the modernization of the Russian economy, integration the Russian economy into the EU economy and in common neighborhood of Eastern Europe.
In present Romania have a Cross-Border operational program financed by the EU for the development of the cross-border cooperation between Romania and Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, both neighbors of the Russia. More about the program on the official web site of the program www.ro-ua-md.net.

Partnership and Cooperation Agreement
The legal basis for the cooperation between EU and Russia is the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement which came in to force on the 1st of December 1997, for the initial duration of 10 years and which is automatically extended beyond 2007 on the annual basis unless either sides withdraws.

St. Petersburg Summit
In the same time at St. Petersburg Summit in 2003 EU and Russia decided on 4 common spaces:

1. The Common Economic Space;
2. The Common Space of Freedom, Security and Justice;
3. The Common Space of External Security;
4. The Common Space of Research and Education, including Cultural Aspects.

The Northern Dimensions and the Cooperation with the Baltic Sea Region

The Northern Dimensions (ND) is covering a broad area form economic, politic and geographic perspective, from European Arctic and Sub-Arctic areas to the southern shores of the Baltic Sea, including the countries in its vicinity and from the North West Russia in the east, to the Iceland and Greenland in the west.
The Baltic Sea and the Kaliningrad Oblast with its opportunity for the development given its particular geographical region, with the extensive Arctic and Sub-Arctic areas including the Barents Region are priority area for the Northern Dimensions Policy.

The Northern Dimensions partners are:

• The European Union;
• Iceland;
• Norway;
• Russian Federation.