Prodi offers deal to end stand-off over Russian enclave
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Your support makes all the difference.Fresh moves to end an angry stand-off between the European Union and Russia over Kaliningrad were tabled yesterday, with Brussels proposing a special, multi-entry transit document for travel to and from the Russian enclave.
The plan, launched by Romano Prodi, the European Commission president, follows months of talks over the future of Kaliningrad, a part of Russia that will be surrounded by the EU when the 15-nation bloc enlarges, probably in 2004.
Determined to keep a tight control over immigration, EU officials had insisted that people travelling to and from Kaliningrad would need visas to pass through Lithuania or Poland, something not currently required. Moscow, which has made the dispute a point of principle, argues that it cannot accept a system under which other countries decide who can travel between different parts of its territory.
Under the compromise, a facilitated travel document, or "Kaliningrad pass", would be issued by consulates to those on lists of frequent travellers provided by the Russians. Although technically not a visa, the pass would operate in a similar way – something Moscow will still find hard to accept. Until 2004 the pass could be used in conjunction with internal Russian travel documents. From 2004 travellers would need a passport.
More welcome in Russia will be a promise to explore ideas proposed by its President, Vladimir Putin, for an eventual move to visa-free travel between Russia and the EU.
In addition the European Commission called for a study of the feasibility of non-stop, visa-free trains between Kaliningrad and Russian cities – another Russian suggestion. The Commission added, though, that the "technical preconditions" for such a system "do not at this stage exist".
Early reaction from Moscow was non-committal. Dmitri Rogozin, the Russian presidential envoy for Kaliningrad, said: "We will have serious questions on the option proposed. What is at least positive is that the Commission's position has emerged at all and can be considered along with Russia's as a starting point."
The Russian authorities say that each year 960,000 people travel by train and another 620,000 by car between the enclave and the rest of Russia.
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