Valdai Club

On April 18, in Rome, the Valdai Discussion Club in cooperation with the Italian Institute of International Relations (IAI) held a conference titled "Beyond the Deadlock: What Future for EU-Russia Relations?". Experts discussed whether there were prospects of a "strategic partnership", which is currently undergoing a deep crisis.

"Italy once again has shown that it remains a very important bridge for dialogue between Russia and the European Union, because the Italian approach was always characterized by the ability to listen to our point of view, of course, not agreeing on all positions. Today's meeting once again confirmed this ", - said Oleg Barabanov, Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club, Academic Director of the European Studies Institute at Moscow State University of International Relations of the MFA of Russia, who took part at the conference.

During the conference, experts exchanged views on the bilateral relations between Russia and Italy, and also talked about the dynamics of relations' development between Russia and the European Union as a whole.

"The Italian partners displayed a sincere interest to the dialogue, a willingness to admit the EU errors at the previous stages of its policy toward Russia, which is now defined as "business as usual", and also in the formation of current approaches, already under the influence of the Ukrainian crisis," – Oleg Barabanov said.

As a result, the experts concluded that the European Union should become less dogmatic and conduct a rational, pragmatic policy, more in line with the present political realities.

According to Oleg Barabanov, almost all the Italian participants stressed the importance of the fact that Russia and the EU were interdependent in any political scenario. "We need to keep dialogue channels to minimize the costs of the current difficult political situation", - said Programme Director of the Valdai Discussion Club.