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Group statement | 30 January 2014

It is Time to Pursue a Cooperative Greater Europe

In their first position paper ‘It is Time to Pursue a Cooperative Greater Europe’ the Task Force on Greater European Cooperation:

  • Rejects the idea that the EU and Eurasian Union are fundamentally incompatible;
  • Calls for an end to zero-sum thinking in the EU/NATO-Russia relationship;
  • Calls for an urgent dialogue on how to maximise the economic relationship between the EU, the EU Eastern partnership countries, the members of the Eurasian Union and Turkey;
  • Urges the EU/NATO, Russia and Turkey to collaborate on meeting the jihadi threat in Syria and on a range of other threats common to all;
  • Calls for steps to create a genuine security community in Europe, and for a joint EU-Russia approach to civil and military crisis management, especially in relation to the four frozen conflicts in the region.

The full list of signatories includes:

  • Des Browne, Former Defence Secretary (UK) (Task Force Co-Chair);
  • Igor S. Ivanov, Former Foreign Minister, President, Russian International Affairs Council, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russia) (Task Force Co-Chair);
  • Adam Daniel Rotfeld, Former Foreign Minister, (Poland) (Task Force Co-Chair);
  • Ana Palacio, former Foreign Minister (Spain);
  • Paul Quilès, former Defence Minister (France);
  • Pierre Lellouche, former Secretary of State for European Affairs and Foreign Trade (France);
  • Malcolm Rifkind, former Foreign and Defence Secretary (UK);
  • Volker Ruehe, former Defence Minister, (Germany);
  • Özdem Sanberk, Director of the International Strategic Research Organisation, former Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, (Turkey);
  • Tarja Cronberg, Member of the European Parliament and former Director of the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute (Finland);
  • 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);
  • Anatoliy Adamishin, former Deputy Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the UK, President of the Association of Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation (Russia);
  • Vitaly V. Zhurkin, Director Emeritus of the RAS Institute of Europe, RAS Full Member (Russia).
  • 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);
  • Anatoliy Torkunov, Rector of Moscow State Institute of International Relations of the RF MFA, RAS Full Member, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation (Russia).