Eastern European woes ruin Merkel's grand plans for EU alliance with Russia

· Poland and Lithuania wanted summit called off · Germany had hoped for a deal on climate changeIan Traynor in Brussels and Luke Harding in MoscowFriday May 18, 2007
GuardianGermany's hopes of striking a new grand bargain between Russia and Europe, locking both into a close embrace for years to come, have been dashed before a crucial EU-Russia summit.
As the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, flew to Samara on the Volga last night for dinner with President Vladimir Putin and to open today's summit, it was clear that the meeting was being hijacked by a long list of disputes focused on eastern Europe and the Balkans.
Currently chairing the EU, Germany has prepared the summit as an opportunity to secure Russian agreements on energy security, human rights and climate change. But Berlin's wooing of Moscow has fallen foul of the worsening estrangement between President Putin and the west in recent months.
Tension between Russia and the west, hostility towards Russia from the new eastern European members of the EU (and their suspicion of Berlin), and President Vladimir Putin's brash assertion of regained Russian power have all compounded the mood of gloom.
Ms Merkel has won widespread plaudits this year for her steering of the EU. But Germany has a huge stake in the Samara summit and it looks like being a failure for Ms Merkel.
The new EU member states of Poland and Lithuania have been arguing this week for the summit to be called off, and criticising the German preparations. For historical reasons, the east Europeans are highly sensitive to any sign of Germany cutting deals with Russia over their heads.
The immediate cause of the impasse is a Polish veto on launching negotiations on what is known as the partnership and cooperation agreement, or PCA, between the EU and Russia - because of a continuing Russian ban on Polish meat imports.
But the roots of the estrangement lie in the transformation of the EU with the entry of 10 central European and Balkan states since 2004 - all of them former Soviet satellites nursing grievances to varying degrees against Russia. Vladimir Chizhov, Russia's ambassador in Brussels, said the relationship was "more complicated" since the accession of Poland, the Baltic states, and other former Soviet dependencies: "Some of these countries continue to treat Russia in a peculiar manner."
Both sides have a huge stake in a successful partnership. Many European countries, especially eastern Europe and Germany, depend on Russian gas and oil supplies, while more than half of Russia's trade is with the EU. But the eastern Europeans are incensed at Russian efforts to play off "old" versus "new" Europe and at the condescending tone they hear from Moscow. On Wednesday the Kremlin's EU envoy, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said some of the eastern European governments had "complexes". "Our old and trusted EU partners recognise this," he said, while accusing Estonia of barbarism and of trying to rewrite the history of the second world war.
Ms Merkel had made the ambitious new pact with Russia a centrepiece of her EU presidency, a comprehensive deal designed to replace a 10-year agreement that expires this year. Instead, the summit could turn into a showdown.