As expected, the EU-Russia summit which took place this weekend was glacial, and it wasn't the weather.
Poland triumphant after icy EU-Russia summit
Polish politicians and analysts are celebrating EU solidarity after Berlin and Brussels took Warsaw's line at the EU-Russia summit on Friday. But the meeting irked Russian president Vladimir Putin, damaging further the prospects of a new EU-Russia treaty.
"This is a great success for Polish diplomacy, in terms of Russian relations we got what we wanted," the chairman of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, Marek Kuchcinski, said, Gazeta Wyborcza reports. "Our critics should finally admit this."
Analyst Andrzej Maciejewski of the Sobieski Institute in Warsaw said the EU "taught [Russia] a lesson." Rafal Trzaskowski of the European school in Natolin said the EU showed "it can speak with one voice, that solidarity is not an empty word."
The reactions - yet to be matched at top Polish government level - come after Germany's Angela Merkel and European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso gave backing to Polish, Estonian and Lithuanian concerns at last week's meeting in Samara.
"The problem of Polish meat is a European problem," Ms Merkel said. "I'm concerned about some people having problems in travelling here," she added, on reports that opposition leaders were prevented from attending a small-scale anti-Putin demonstration in the town.
"Poland's problem is a pan-European problem. Just as Lithuanian or Estonian problems are problems for all of Europe," Mr Barroso stated. "The European Union is based on the principle of solidarity."
Publicly, Mr Barroso said "We are very supportive of the process by which Russia becomes a WTO member." But privately, the EU also delivered the message there are "major impediments" to EU approval of Russia's WTO bid.
The toughening line comes after 18 months of Polish frustration over a Russian ban on food imports. Lithuania has been fuming for 11 months about Russia's shut-down of an oil pipeline, while accusing Moscow of political games to divide the union of 27 western and post-Communist states.
It also comes in the context of Russian attacks against Estonia after Tallinn removed a Soviet-era statue. The row has seen cyber-attacks on Estonian websites, riots by ethnic Russians in Tallinn and a siege on Estonia's embassy in Moscow.
Putin visibly irked
According to the BBC, a visibly irked Mr Putin at the post-summit press conference hit back at his guests, saying "We often hear about the need for solidarity. Are there any limits to solidarity? Are there any questions that should be decided internally?"
The Russian president blamed Poland for the ongoing meat ban, adding "since our Polish colleagues have not been on speaking terms with us for over a year...Thank God, there is the German chancellor representing their interests."
He also accused Estonian police of letting an ethnic Russian protester die following a stabbing in the Soviet statue riots in Tallinn. "They killed one demonstrator. We demand that the criminals be brought to account," Mr Putin said.
And he rebuffed Ms Merkel's concerns about curbs on opposition figures. "Any action must stay within the limits of current legislation," the Russian president said. "Police and law enforcement agencies in Europe also take preventive measures."
In the post-summit fallout, Russian economy minister German Gref warned there will be no EU-Russia treaty before the EU's WTO approval, Ria Novosti writes. "After entry into the WTO we'll conclude a new treaty," he said, hoping that remaining obstacles could be resolved in "a few weeks."
No joint declaration
The Samara gathering ended without a joint declaration by the two sides, as was traditional in the past. But the leaders did agree on a number of minor points to save the meeting from being remembered only for its frosty rhetoric.
From 1 June 2007 Europeans and Russians are to benefit from a simplified visa regime. The two sides plan to "consider" pooling work on their Glosnass and Galileo satellite projects and to set up an early warning system on energy supply shocks.
Meanwhile, regular talks will continue at lower official level. German agriculture minister Horst Seehofer on Sunday held out hopes of solving the Polish meat ban in the near future. "Poland already agrees with a phased solution," he said, according to AFP.
EU Observer