The European Parliament adopted a resolution 20th EU-Russia Summit, which took place on 26 October 2007 in Mafra, Portugal, and reconfirmed its conviction that Russia remains an important partner for the purpose of building strategic cooperation based on common values, with which the EU shares not only economic and trade interests but also the objective of cooperating closely in the international arena. It called on the Russian Government to create together with the EU the necessary condition for a rapid start to the negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement between the EU and Russia, stressing the importance of solidarity among the EU Member States in their relations with Russia as well as the idea that democracy and human rights must be at the core of any future agreement with the Russian Federation. In spite of the limited results achieved at the Mafra Summit, Parliament welcomed the atmosphere of the meeting and the subsequent encouraging statements that could lead to the unblocking of the situation in the near future. It also hoped that an agreement could soon be reached on the conditions for rapid accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO.

Parliament emphasised, however, that the current situation in Russia gives rise to serious concern in terms of respect for human rights, democracy, freedom of expression and the rights of civil society and individuals to challenge authorities and hold them accountable for their actions. It was extremely worried about the lack of any substantive response by the Russian authorities to the numerous expressions of this concern, and stressed that the implementation of the current NGO law has had a negative impact on the work of many NGOs, underlining the importance of NGOs independent of national governments for the development of civil society.

In addition, the situation in Chechnya continues to be a point of dissent in the relations between the EU and Russia. Members reiterated their strong criticism of Russia's policy in Chechnya and their condemnation of the numerous human rights violations in Chechnya, calling on the Russian Federation to take concrete steps to eradicate torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary detention and "disappearances" in the Chechen Republic, and to tackle impunity in relation to such violations.

Parliament called for a stepping-up of the EU-Russia human rights dialogue and for this process to be opened up to effective input from the European Parliament, the State Duma and civil society and human rights organisations. The situation of minorities within Russia should be included on the agenda of the human rights dialogue. It called on Russia to respect fully its obligations as a member of the Council of Europe, including respecting the right of association and the right of peaceful demonstration. Parliament also expressed its concern about the restriction of democratic freedoms in the run-up to the Duma elections in December 2007 and the presidential elections in March 2008, calling on the Russian authorities to guarantee a free and fair process for both elections in order to ensure that the opposition parties have the possibility of participating in those elections and the opportunity to conduct a competitive election campaign. Freedom of the media will be of key importance if the elections are to be seen as free and fair. In this regard, the resolution regretted the Russian authorities’ delay in issuing an election observation invitation to the OSCE, and allowing only a restricted number of OSCE observers to monitor the parliamentary elections. It expressed its deep concern at the diplomatic efforts by the Russian Federation to curtail the activities of the ODHIR by submitting proposals to the OSCE to cut the size of election observation missions and by prohibiting the publication of their reports immediately after an election.

Parliament went on to stress the importance of improving the climate for European investment in Russia, and was concerned about the lack of predictability in the application of rules by the authorities.

On energy issues , it felt that the principles of interdependence and transparency should be the basis of cooperation, together with equal access to markets, infrastructure and investment. It called on the Council and the Commission to ensure that the principles of the Energy Charter Treaty, which is binding on Russia even prior to its ratification by the Russian State Duma, the Transit Protocol annexed thereto and the G8 conclusions are incorporated in a new PCA between the EU and Russia, including further cooperation on energy efficiency, energy saving and renewable energy. These principles should be applied to major energy infrastructure projects, such as the Baltic gas pipeline. Parliament called for the EU to speak to Russia with one voice on these sensitive energy matters. The Russian Federation must invest heavily in energy efficiency measures, given the urgent need to address the problem of climate change and the social benefits that such investment will bring.

Parliament welcomed the progress achieved in terms of the implementation of cross-border cooperation programmes based on the principle of co-financing and equal status in the selection of priority projects, and in particular the announcement made by the Russian side at the Mafra Summit that it is ready to allocate the necessary funds to these programmes, starting with a first tranche of EUR 122 000 000.

Other issues raised in the resolution concern the following:

- queues of trucks up to 50 km long on the EU side of the border are unacceptable and Russia must streamline its procedures at the borders and to implement the measures agreed with the EU to reduce these bottlenecks;

- regretting the fact that Russia did not honour its commitment to phase out Siberian overflight payments, Parliament called on Russia to sign the agreement reached on this issue at the last summit and underlined that a positive move by Russia would allow the EU to go ahead with the Aviation Summit that is planned to take place in Moscow in spring 2008 to identify the enormous potential for cooperation in this key sector;

- Russia and the United States were urged to intensify the discussions on defence and security issues directly or indirectly involving the Member States of the European Union. the Governments of both States should involve the EUand its Member States fully in these discussions and refrain from taking any steps which might be considered a threat to peace and stability on the European continent;

- Russia must reconsider plans to suspend compliance with the CFE Treaty and to use the path of negotiations in order to protect its legitimate interests and avoid an erosion of the CFE Treaty, which could lead to a new arms race and new lines of confrontation;

- the Russian Government was asked to make a positive contribution to the efforts of the Contact Group for Kosovo and the EU to find a sustainable, political solution for the future status of Kosovo;

- the EU and Russia, as a member of the UN Security Council, should continue their efforts to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue;

Lastly, Parliament stressed the importance of the continued fight against corruption and underlined that international conventions, national legislation and codes of conduct were not sufficient if they are not followed by effective implementation.

The resolution winding up this debate was due to be put to the vote on 14 November 2007.