We are pleased to announce today the formation of a new High Level Leadership Task Force on European-Russian Relations: A Cooperative Greater Europe by 2030.
The Task Force will bring forward proposals to allow all countries of the region to decisively break with the costly legacy of the Cold War and focus more effectively on meeting the emerging political, economic, and security challenges of the 21st century. It will address the causes of current levels of mistrust between key countries and actors in the region, have trust-building as a central theme in its deliberations, and will set out a rationale and vision for a cooperative Greater Europe by 2030 and a range of practical steps necessary to move the international relations of the continent in that direction.
The Leadership Task Force will be supported in its deliberations with analysis from the Russian Council on International Affairs (RIAC), the European Leadership Network (ELN) and the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM).
We are pleased to announce today the formation of a new High Level Leadership Task Force on European-Russian Relations: A Cooperative Greater Europe by 2030.
The Task Force will bring forward proposals to allow all countries of the region to decisively break with the costly legacy of the Cold War and focus more effectively on meeting the emerging political, economic, and security challenges of the 21st century. It will address the causes of current levels of mistrust between key countries and actors in the region, have trust-building as a central theme in its deliberations, and will set out a rationale and vision for a cooperative Greater Europe by 2030 and a range of practical steps necessary to move the international relations of the continent in that direction.
The Leadership Task Force will be supported in its deliberations with analysis from the Russian Council on International Affairs (RIAC), the European Leadership Network (ELN) and the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM).
Who Are the Members of the Task Force?
The Task Force will operate over a two year period and is comprised of distinguished former political, military and diplomatic figures. Its full confirmed membership is as follows:
- Igor S. Ivanov, Former Foreign Minister, President, Russian International Affairs Council, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) (Co-Chair);
- Des Browne, Former Defence Secretary (UK) (Co-Chair);
- Adam Daniel Rotfeld, Former Foreign Minister, (Poland) (Co-Chair);
- Vyacheslav I. Trubnikov, Former Director, Russian Foreign Intelligence, General of the Army (Rtd), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation (Russia);
- Igor Yu. Yurgens, Chairman of the Board of the Institute of Contemporary Development, Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (Russia);
- Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister (Spain);
- Malcolm Rifkind, former Foreign and Defence Secretary (UK);
- Volker Ruehe, former Defence Minister, (Germany);
- Tarja Cronberg, Member of the European Parliament (Finland);
- Ruslan S. Grinberg, Director of RAS Institute of Economics, Corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia);
- Alexei Gromyko, Deputy Director of the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences (IE RAS) (Russia);
- Pierre Lellouche, former Secretary of State for European Affairs and Foreign Trade (France);
- Özdem Sanberk, former Permanent Undersecretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and former Chief Foreign Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister, (Turkey);
- Anatoliy Torkunov, Rector of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of the RF MFA, RAS Full Member, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation (Russia);
- Vitaly V. Zhurkin, Director Emeritus of the RAS Institute of Europe, RAS Full Member (Russia).
What will the Task Force do?
The Task Force will:
- Consider the current state of efforts, intellectually and practically, to deepen levels of political, military and economic cooperation in the region;
- Examine the steps necessary to avoid a further worsening of relations between Russia and the countries of the EU and NATO in the short-term;
- Explore the causes of the mistrust that currently acts as a barrier to deeper cooperation and the steps that might be capable of changing the trust dynamic;
- Bring forward proposals on how to radically transform the political-military relationship between Russia and NATO, including in the fields of nuclear policy and deployments, missile defence, conventional forces, non-military security cooperation, and crisis management;
- Set out a strategic rationale for the concept of a cooperative Greater Europe by 2030;
- Consider how new issue areas, such as cyber-security, bio-security and space might become areas of cooperative endeavour between the countries of the region rather than new areas of competition and conflict;
- Develop proposals for deeper economic cooperation and the easier movement of people in the region;
- Set out a vision for what the internal characteristics of a more cooperative Greater European space would be, drawing on the work of others already done in this field;
- Consider the suitability and effectiveness of the current institutional architecture within the space, the changes that are already occurring, and the further changes that may be necessary if the institutional architecture is to remain effective.
- What do we mean by Greater Europe?
What do we mean by Greater Europe?
For the purposes of this project, the term ‘Greater Europe’ refers to the entire geographic space between Iceland and Norway in the North and Turkey in the South and the space from Portugal in the West to Russia in the east. It is not bounded by the membership of any one regional institution.
Updates on project activities will be placed on the ELN, PISM and RIAC web-sites at the following addresses: www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org; www.pism.pl; www.russiancouncil.ru.
For further information and background on the project, please contact one of the following:
- Dr Ian Kearns, Director, European Leadership Network, London
Tel: +44 (0)203 176 2552 - Lukasz Kulesa, Head of the Non-Proliferation and Arms Control Project, PISM, Warsaw
Tel: +48 (22) 556 80 00 - Andrei Kortunov, Director-General, RIAC, Moscow
Tel: +7 (495) 225 6283
