"The European Union and Russia reaffirm their commitment to ensure that EU enlargement will bring the EU and Russia closer together in a Europe without dividing lines." This declaration was adopted in Brussels yesterday as part of a last-minute deal which extends partnership and co-operation agreements between them to the 10 new member-states due to join the EU in Dublin on Saturday. A Europe without dividing lines is certainly desirable and in the interests of both sides; but whether in reality it is brought closer by EU enlargement is doubtful.
The Russians feared the loss of trade privileges and were worried about human rights protection for Russian-speaking minorities in the Baltic states now about to join the EU. They have been concerned to ensure free access to Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland. But yesterday they dropped these objections and reached agreement in a spirit of goodwill.
An EU-Russia summit meeting next month will pursue economic, security, political and foreign policy issues as part of the new relationship. It will function in parallel with similar summits between the EU and other states in the "wider Europe" which now becomes its immediate neighbourhood, but from which it is also about to be separated by a strengthened external border.
This border introduces new dividing lines between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Romania, several of the Balkan states and the new members of the EU with which there was up to now relatively free movement. A series of articles in this newspaper during the week has reported on the human consequences involved.
There will be pressure from the new member-states to keep the borders with this wider Europe as open as possible, in keeping with yesterday's declaration and other official EU rhetoric; but it will be difficult to do so in the face of countervailing pressure to prevent labour migration, refugee and criminal trafficking across them.
The issue will continue to divide states and peoples in this new Europe. A fortress policy risks storing up resentments which will become more pressing as time goes by. Open political and economic engagement is the best way to stop that happening.
The EU is not the whole of Europe, for all that it has successfully become the continent's predominant political institution, as virtually all these neighbouring states aspire to join it in the long term. A constructive relationship with Russia will be a key factor in sustaining stability. A Europe without dividing lines will remain a utopian ambition and not a realistic prospect if it is not actively pursued by governments and peoples alike.