The European Union & Russia: Allies? Partners? Rivals?

2020 was full of promises for further improvement of EU-Russia cooperation and strengthening of the principle of EU “selective engagement” with Russia. Indeed, the European Union and Russia have much to gain from a revival of their relations. Maintaining and developing cooperation in fields such as environment, the Artic or 5-G technologies between Moscow and Brussels could be one mechanism for inhibiting the forming of a US-China bipolarity and reset bilateral relations.

However political developments in Belarus and the Navalny case in August have cast a shadow over those relations and put a halt to attempts at the rapprochement, initiated last year by President Macron and which was high on the agenda of the German EU Presidency.

The latest deterioration of EU-Russia relations could not have come at a worse moment. The unprecedented public health and economic crisis triggered by the pandemic could well leave Moscow and Brussels in a weaker position in the post-COVID-19 world order.

In November 2020, European and Russian experts from the EU-Russia Expert Network (EUREN) have developed four possible scenarios for the future of EU-Russia relations until 2030: “Cold partnership”, “Descending into anarchy”, “On the brink of war”, and “Community of values”. Which of those possible scenarios will prevail? Will the EU and Russia remain allies or partners or will they become rivals? What strategies could be developed to overcome the current standoff? These are questions to which our experts shall answer during this event.

Modérateur :
Tadzio SCHILLING, Chief Executive Officer, AEB

Intervenants :
Nadezhda ARBATOVA, Head of Department of European Political Studies, Professor, Institute of World Economy & International Relations RAS (IMEMO)
Andrey BAYKOV, Vice-Rector, MGIMO
Marek DABROWSKI, Non-Resident Fellow at Bruegel; Professor, Higher School of Economics in Moscow
Andrey KORTUNOV, General Director, Russian International Affairs Council
Thierry de MONTBRIAL, Executive Chairman of the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri)
Hans-Joachim SPANGER, Head of Research Department, Leibniz Institute Peace Research Institute Frankfurt; Research Professor, Higher School of Economics, Moscow