GAERC: ESTONIA LIKELY TO JOIN CONSENSUS ON PCA

C O N F I D E N T I A L TALLINN 000393 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/31/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV EUN RS EN SUBJECT: GAERC: ESTONIA LIKELY TO JOIN CONSENSUS ON PCA Classified by: CDA KAREN DECKER for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) RE: STATE 115017 ¶1. (C) MFA European Correspondent Kristina Meius confirmed to Pol/Econ Chief on November 7 that Estonia will not block consensus at next week's GAERC on moving forward with PCA negotiations. Meius said that she believes the member states will find a compromise solution. Estonia will agree to resume PCA talks, but in return it wants agreement on several key principles: 1) EU-Russia relations cannot continue with "business as usual" as there is no trust between the partners; 2) a clear indication that Russia has not fulfilled its commitments to withdraw to the position it held prior to August 7; and cooperation with Russia cannot move forward in several sensitive areas including the visa dialogue, political dialogue and ESDP. The GOE also wants agreement on increased attention to the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP). Meius noted that if the PCA is blocked, the EU would end up with a series of bilateral agreements with Russia that are "not in the interest of small member states." Meius was clear that point 2 is a red line for Estonia, it will not agree to conclusions which indicate Russia has met its obligations in Georgia. ¶2. (C) Meius noted there was discussion yesterday in COREPER regarding where the decisions on Russia will be recorded. Estonia wants the issued dealt with in the Council Conclusions, but noted it could end up in minutes or elsewhere. DECKER