EU leaders to review Russia relations at summit

The top item on the agenda will be the EU's broader relationship with Russia, with some member states - most prominently, the UK, Poland and Sweden - suggesting that the EU should use the negotiations on a new strategic partnership agreement as leverage over the government of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. France and Germany oppose any suspension of talks but have hardened their rhetoric in recent days, as it emerged that Russia's interpretation of the six-point ceasefire, whose wording is vague and does not include any deadlines, is at variance with the EU's reading.

EU foreign ministers met in Brussels for emergency talks on 13 August - the day after a first draft of the ceasefire agreement was agreed - and referred the matter of EU-Russia relations to their next informal meeting, scheduled to take place in Avignon on 5-6 September. But Russia's failure to withdraw from locations that are outside the conflict zone has heightened EU concerns and prompted calls for a top-level meeting.

The dynamics of the entire situation changed dramatically today (25 August) when the upper house of Russia's parliament voted unanimously in favour of recognising the two breakaway regions at the heart of the current crisis, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. Both are part of Georgia under international law and a formal recognition by Russia would be a major break with the international consensus on the matter. EU foreign ministers, reaffirmed on 13 August that a solution to the conflict must be based on “full respect for the principles of independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The non-binding upper house vote will now be debated by the Russian parliament's lower house before being presented to President Dmitry Medvedev.

The EU has sent an additional 20 military observers to Georgia to reinforce the existing monitoring mission of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which is to be strengthened by an additional 80 observers whose dispatch is underway. EU leaders are likely to discuss the option of making the OSCE mission more robust or of sending monitors or even peacekeepers under the European Security and Defence Policy. Any such deployment, however, will have to wait for a resolution by the UN Security Council, where Russia holds a veto.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently on a consultative visit to Sweden and the Baltic republics - all of which are asking for a tougher stance towards Russia. Germany has also proposed a conference for Georgia's neighbours to discuss economic reconstruction in the war-torn region.