On 18 November, the EU and Russia meet in Stockholm. Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt receives Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Russia’s ambassador in Stockholm, Mr Igor Neverov, shares his views on the issues that will be discussed.

In your view, what are the most important issues that will be discussed during the Summit on Wednesday?
- First of all, I would like to emphasize that Russia views its relations with the European Union as one of the top priorities of its foreign policy. The elaboration of a new framework agreement between Russia and the EU is high on the summit agenda. The two sides are very likely to discuss the establishment of a sustained dialogue in the field of energy, security of oil and gas supply and energy efficiency. Among other issues is dialogue on security and crisis management in order to effectively address the global and regional challenges and key threats of today, including Climate Change. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s proposal for a new European security architecture is also on the summit table.

Climate Change is high on the agenda for the summit. What is the position of the Russian government on this issue, and what is Russia doing to help meet the challenge of Climate Change?
- The issue of Climate Change is, as I mentioned earlier, among the major items on the summit’s agenda. Russia and, in particular Sweden both pay top attention to this problem. Moscow signed up to the Kyoto Protocol and has been fulfilling its obligations. Russia has worked out a long-term plan for reducing its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). We are ready to contribute at least 50 percent reduction of GHG by 2050 as compared to 1990 and we will do our best to reduce them by 2020 by around 10-15 percent.
- The Russian Government has also resolved to reduce our economy’s power consumption by 40 percent by 2020. Overall, this would mean that over the period from 1990 through to 2020, we would reduce our total emissions by 30 billion tons.

How has the global economic and financial crisis affected Russia and EU-Russia relations?
- Our vast energy resources and strong economic stability have made Russia less vulnerable than others to the global financial crisis. However, this cannot but have an impact on my country, which is now solidly integrated into the world economy and financial markets. We are also passing through a difficult period of the slowdown of the economic growth, increased unemployment, etc.
- Unfortunately, the current global regulation system was not ready to prevent economies from taking a negative trend, but this downturn unified the countries in the face of the crisis. Russia joined efforts with others to make the global economy more healthy and stable, and less susceptible to global risks. We are in the same boat. The current crisis will most certainly affect the world and bring nations closer in shaping their national economic policies responsibly. The EU is, of course, a key partner.

What would you say are the main challenges for the EU-Russia relationship today?
- I am convinced that the main challenge for both Russia and the EU is to develop mutual trust, respect and understanding, promote diversified humanitarian contacts between our societies and peoples. The visa dialogue plays an important role in this process. Our goal is a visa-free regime with the EU.