Nice, France - On Friday, European Union and Russian leaders agreed to re-launch negotiations on a "new EU-Russia agreement" on December 2, with expert meetings due on November 21-22. The new deal is meant to replace an earlier Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) agreed for 10 years with Boris Yeltsin's Russia in 1997.
The PCA still governs EU-Russia relations, since EU leaders decided to freeze talks on the new deal on September 1 in protest at Russia's August invasion of Georgia.
Talks on the new deal are intended to agree a legal framework for EU-Russia relations on issues ranging from energy, trade and investment to education, culture and environmental protection.
However, the EU's negotiating mandate also calls on the bloc to push for a solution to the so-called "frozen conflicts" in Georgia and Moldova which respects those countries' sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Diplomats admit that that will be a difficult challenge, given Russia's decision on August 26 to recognize the independence of the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
The original PCA, like the document which is meant to replace it, covers EU-Russia relationships in trade, investment, environmental protection, tourism, and cultural exchanges.
It also covers relations in fields such as the protection of intellectual property, regulation of import tariffs, and economic cooperation, especially in fields "designed to to bring about economic and social reforms and restructuring in Russia."
The agreement created a system whereby the EU and Russia hold two summit meetings a year and maintain a permanent Cooperation Council on ministerial level to deal with ongoing issues.
It also set up a system for dealing with disputes by means of arbitration and cleared the way for either side to take "appropriate measures" if it feels the other side has broken the deal.
"In the selection of these measures, priority must be given to those which least disturb the functioning of the agreement," article 107 reads.
The full text of the PCA consists of 112 articles, 10 annexes, two additional protocols, 33 joint declarations, three unilateral declarations and two exchanges of letters - some 60 pages of text.
