“As long as the withdrawal of the [Russian] troops is not completed, all meetings on the partnership agreement are postponed,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said at a press conference following the emergency summit in Brussels, EUobserver.com reports.
It was especially the UK which lobbied the suspension.
The talks on a new treaty defining the EU relations with Russia were scheduled to take place later this month, but pressed by the demand of several member states, it was decided this would be tied to Russian withdrawal from Georgia.
Russia, for its part, suggested the suspension of talks was no big deal. “We had waited for 18 months for talks to start, so we’re accustomed to being patient,” Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the EU, told the EUobserver.
Read the statement from the council session at ue2008.fr
