St Basils Cathedral
Russia is the EU's biggest neighbour and third biggest trading partner, with Russian supplies of oil and gas making up a large percentage of its exports to Europe.
The current basis for cooperation is the 1994 Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA).
Negotiations on a new, EU-Russia Agreement were launched at the 2008 Khanty-Mansiysk summit. The new agreement should:
Ongoing EU-Russia cooperation covers 4 policy areas – referred to as common spaces:
Drawn up following the 2010 Rostov Summit, the Partnership for Modernisation deals with all aspects of modernisation – economic, technical (including standards and regulations) rule of law and functioning of the judiciary. The Partnership has become a focal point of mutual cooperation, reinforcing dialogue started under the common spaces. The last progress report 2012
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Recent Partnership initiatives include:
Overall, the EU and Russia cooperate on a number of challenges of bilateral and international concern, including climate change, drug and human trafficking, organized crime, counter-terrorism, non-proliferation, the Middle East peace process, and Iran.