Introduction: The European Union and Russia

The EU’s multilevel system of governance means that the member states participate in the formulation and implementation of the Union’s common policy towards Russia within the framework of the Brussels institutions while quite legitimately continuing to maintain bilateral relationships with Russia. In itself this is not unusual: the same is true in the case of the EU’s foreign policies in general. However, the case of Russia is of particular importance and relevance for understanding the interplay between the formulation and conduct of foreign policy at the national and multinational (EU) levels and in particular for assessing the impact of the former on the coherence and effectiveness of the latter. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, a significant number of member states have very extensive and intensive bilateral relationships with Russia, often officially designated as ‘strategic’ or ‘special’ partnerships and framed by bilateral treaties and agreements. Chief among them are four of the large member states, Germany, Italy, France and also more recently Spain. However, a number of smaller states such as Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands also have very close (although in the case of the latter, not always trouble-free) relations. Frequent bilateral summits take place and there is a dense network of meetings at political, official and civil society levels often resulting in important agreements, for example on energy, trade, security and culture.