Welcome to the P&S web-site !
It is my pleasure to present you on behalf of the Board of the international European Club our project – Multilanguage web-site directly devoted to the affairs by and between the European Union and the Russian Federation. We started it at the end of 2008 and named – “The EU-Russia: Partnership and Success” or shortly “P&S”.
The EU and Russia are the main parts of the Old World. We are united forever, not only geographically, but by our mutual history and culture. After the end of the Soviet State we could start a new, deep and wide economical cooperation.
Now the Russian turnover with the EU is about half of the total external turnover of the Russian Federation. The EU investors are the main foreign investors in Russia. In turn, Russia is between three main economic partners of the European Union.
For over ten years our affairs have been based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (signed 1994, ratified 1997, automatically prolonged 2007). Today these affairs include a lot of spheres like global security, social and economic development, improvement of the international financial system, climate changing and environment protection, intercultural dialogue, fighting with the international crime, etc.
We have already done a lot together and I am sure that we can and must do much more than this, despite a number of real problems and some kind of artificial obstacles on that way. It is known from the Bible times: “If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand” (Bible, New Testament, St. Mark, ch.3, v. 25). So we have to unite both parts of our common House of Europe, based on the common goals, interests and values, but not the goals, interests and values of just one side.
When we are speaking about the EU-Russia strategic partnership in the 21-st century we have to mind that our common interests, goals and values must not be fixed by the official papers only, but have a strong support in our societies from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. This is not possible to do without a direct, open and non-stop dialogue between us.
For this very purpose we have to have more mutual understanding, transparency and much more trust. As one of the British famous Prime Ministers – Benjamin Disraeli said, not without reason, almost two centuries ago: “All power is a trust”.
But this is not very easy to have a real trust if to base only on our leaders’ meetings, existing diplomatic channels or publications in the worldwide media.
One of the solutions of the said problems may be in the Internet. Its magical space gives us the opportunity to contact immediately, directly and openly. Of course there are millions of the existing web-sites, but only few of them are devoted mainly to the EU – Russia issue. And most of such web-sites are based on the position of the concrete organizations: states, parties, companies. So, the problem of the trust still exists.
That is why we, members of the European Club decided to arrange a kind of an international editorial board or a council of our new P&S web-site. This Council based not on one political party, one nation, or profession. Today we already have 8 members of the Council. Four of them – from Russia, the other four – are citizens of the EU member-states (see “About P&S” page).
The P&S web-site is a non-profit project but anyhow we have to have some financial support, for example, in a form of a donation. To keep our independent status we decided not to receive any financial supply from any states or political parties and not advertize any kind of goods, real estate or securities. Our sponsors have no rights to give instructions or orders to the Council of the P&S web-site or to determine somehow our policy. We will publish the list of our main sponsors and partners.
Thousands of our constant users are living now in more than 80 countries all over the World. Among our authors we already have some dozens the world known politicians, high-ranking diplomats, businesspeople and experts. And a lot of distinguished persons have confirmed their readiness to be on the P&S pages. Within six months since the website birthday (15.12.09) we had successful presentations of “P&S” in Moscow, Brussels and Paris. Before the end of 2009 we are planning to do it in Switzerland, Germany and Monaco.
We constantly improve “P&S” according to the new challengers, our own experience and your – our users’ wishes. In nearest future we are planning to start new pages devoted to bilateral affairs between Russia and the EU member-states and interregional cooperation (“Europe of Regions”).
What kind of assistance do we need? First of all, we will be grateful for all kind of interesting and important information about cooperation and different kinds of relationship between Russia, the EU and all of the EU member-states. We also need your recommendations about our potential authors (politicians, businesspeople, experts) from your countries.
Let’s do together the P&S web-site our common platform for the mutual partnership and success.
Welcome to the P&S web-site!
Dr. Andrey KLIMOV,
Co-chairman of the EU-Russia
Parliamentary Cooperation Committee,
Chairman of the Board of the
EuropeanClub
18.06.2009